Bush's Texas Money Network Uncovered

Texans for Public Justice

609 West 18th St., Suite E, Austin, Texas 78701 ·PH:(512) 472-9770 ·FAX:(512) 472-9830

For Release:
Thursday AM, Jan. 20, 2000

Contact Craig McDonald

(512) 472-9770

Bush’s Texas Money Network Uncovered

Group Profiles 100 “Profiteers,”
Who Enjoy Corporate Welfare, Favors

$41 Million Texas Contributor List Goes On-Line

Austin, Texas: A new study analyzing $41 million that George W. Bush raised in his two Texas gubernatorial campaigns profiles 100 “profiteers.” Most of these wealthy Bush donors have sought corporate welfare, relaxed regulatory rules or other government favors. Texans for Public Justice classifies and analyzes thousands of donors by their business and ideological interests in The Governor’s Gusher: The Sources of George W. Bush’s $41 Million Texas War Chest.

“A small group of business tycoons were instrumental in putting George Bush in the Governor’s Mansion,” said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig L. McDonald. “A disturbing number of these profiteers made a fortune off government handouts or by bending or breaking regulatory rules. The absence of contribution limits in Texas encourages scalawags to invest big in the favors of politicians.”

Among the findings of The Governor’s Gusher:

100 Bush “Profiteers,” who have enjoyed government favors, gave Bush over $3 million.
Bush raised $10 million from just 207 donors who gave at least $25,000. Bush raised $16.7 million from donors who contributed amounts of $10,000 or more.
Bush’s top 80 sources of cash were businessmen, businesses and business PACs that supplied $8 million, or an average of $100,000 apiece.
The oil-laden Energy and Natural Resources industry was the leading source of Bush’s money, providing $5.6 million. The Financial industry ranked second, contributing $4.8 million.
Bush collected $4.1 million from Texas’ business tort lobby, which was rewarded with sweeping limits on its liabilities during Bush’s first term as governor.

“Bush’s benefactors include people who mass marketed quack cures for baldness, corrupted college athletes, laundered money, peddled government influence, misled investors, financed David Duke, dodged taxes, dumped toxic pollution and own companies that sold shock batons to dictators,” said Andrew Wheat, a report author. “What do such people see in Governor Bush?”

“Many of Governor Bush’s big gubernatorial donors are resurfacing among his ‘Pioneer’ fundraisers, who are raising at least $100,000 apiece for his presidential campaign,” said McDonald. “It is high time for the Governor to release the names of all of the Pioneers who are accumulating so much influence in his campaign.”

Copies of The Governor’s Gusher are available at Texans for Public Justice’s website: www.tpj.org. The report includes profiles of the 100 Bush Profiteers. The underlying database of contributors to Bush’s 1994 and 1998 gubernatorial campaigns, including their economic interest classifications, can also be accessed and searched on that website.

###

Texans for Public Justice is a non-profit, non-partisan research and
advocacy organization that tracks the role of money in Texas politics.

home | The Governor's Gusher | press releases