Bush Legal Fund Taps Big-Money Donors

WASHINGTON —  President Bush has amassed a healthy bankroll to cover his legal and bookkeeping expenses in the fall election, with most of the money coming from contributors who had already given the maximum $1,000 to his primary campaign.

Contributors said they were steered to the legal fund by the Bush campaign, usually receiving a letter soliciting another donation just weeks after making the maximum contribution to the President’s reelection effort.

Compliance funds have been legal since the advent of the public campaign-financing system in 1976. They can be used only to defray the legal and accounting expenses--including fines--presidential candidates incur in complying with the law, said Sharon Snyder, a Federal Election Commission spokeswoman.

A March 30 letter to contributors from Bush-Quayle Finance Chairman Bobby Holt says: “While you have given the maximum donation possible to the primary campaign account, you may contribute an additional $1,000 to the Bush-Quayle ’92 Compliance Committee.

“A contribution to this fund means that more of our campaign dollars may go directly to important campaign efforts instead of paying for the massive record-keeping tasks required by the FEC.”

The Bush-Quayle ’92 Compliance Committee reported raising $1.54 million through April. That was in addition to the $22.2 million Bush has raised for the primaries.

Democrat Bill Clinton has not created a compliance fund.

An Associated Press review of Bush reports to the FEC found that 1,057 donors to his legal and bookkeeping fund--more than 80% of those who gave through March 31--earlier had given the maximum to his campaign fund.

Federal law allows individuals to give candidates $1,000 for their primary campaigns and $1,000 more for their general election campaigns. However, both Bush and Clinton have forsworn private contributions to their fall campaigns to qualify for $55.2 million in federal campaign funds.

The legal expenses and bookkeeping fund thus becomes the only way for presidential candidates who receive full public financing in the fall to raise additional private contributions.

Critics say the compliance fund, while legal, circumvents the spirit of the taxpayer-backed presidential campaign-financing system.

“It just shows for every campaign finance law there is a loophole or lawyer lurking for loopholes,” said Larry Makinson, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog group.