This real estate investor is Bush’s Michigan finance chair. Weiser raised Pioneer money from the business community by telling would be-donors that Bush would be the first businessman in decades to win the presidency. But it was not always business money that Weiser expended to get out this message. In ’99, Weiser and Michigan House Speaker Chuck Perricone got caught using state resources to raise Weiser’s Pioneer money for Bush. Perricone marshaled his staff and other office resources to coax Republican colleagues to attend a Bush fundraising meeting with Weiser at a lobby firm. “Clearly it’s a violation of the law,” said the state’s Common Cause director. “A mistake was made,” Perricone admitted. “I regret it. It’s embarrassing.”