In the 2004 election cycle, Ameriquest alone gave Bush $5 million. This doesn't take into account Goldman-Sachs, ($4,000,000) Merryl-Lynch, ($1,500,000) Morgan-Stanley, ($1,500,000) UBS-AG, ($1,400,000) or Lehman Bros. ($1,000,000)
The amount of the campaign contributions Bush received from these investment firms for the 2004 election cycle was really more than $14 million.
Who is the Progress for America Fund that received $5 million in campaign contributions from the sub-prime lender, Arnall?
From: Progress for America Voter Fund:
Progress for America (PFA) (a 501c4) and its affiliate Progress for America Voter Fund (PFA-VF) (a 527 committee) are national tax-exempt organizations. The PFA was, from the beginning, "closely associated" with the Bush administration, the Republican National Committee and "their consultants." [1]
PFA was established in 2001 to support George W. Bush's "agenda for America." The PFA Voter Fund, which was set up in 2004, raised $38 million in support of Bush's 2004 election bid.
Progress for America, a "friends of the party" organization "operated by Tony Feather, the former political director of Bush-Cheney 2000 and a close friend of White House political adviser Karl Rove, is described by some Republicans as a new group dedicated to corralling outlawed party soft money," Steve Weismann, Associate Director for Policy at The Campaign Finance Institute wrote January 28, 2003.
...
The California Orange County Register reported July 24, 2005, that the largest contributors to PFA-VF -- for a total $15.7 million -- were Dawn Arnall and Alex Spanos.
According to FEC records, the following were major PFA-VF contributors in 2004. (CampaignMoney.com)
- Dawn Arnall: $5.4 million
- Richard de Vos (Co-founder Amway): $2 million
- C. Boyden Gray: $100,000
- Carl H. Lindner (Chairman of American Financial Group): $1.5 million
- Bernard Marcus (Retired; Home Depot, Inc.): $1 million
- Robert McNair (Chairman, Houston Texas NFL Franchise): $1.25 million
- Jerry Perenchio (Chartwell Partners LLC): $3 million
- Jerry Perenchio (Living Trust) $1 million
- Bob Perry (CEO of Perry Homes): $3 million
- T. Boone Pickens (CEO of BP Capital): $2.5 million
- Robert Rowlings (CEO of Omni Hotels): $1 million
- Paul E. Singer (Elliott Capital Advisors LP): $1.5 million (Also see Vets for Freedom Action Fund.)
- Alex Spanos (Chairman of AG Spanos Companies): $5 million
- TRT Holdings Inc., Irving, Texas: $1 million
- Jay van Andel (Founder of Alticor): $2 million
- Alice Walton (Rancher; Wal-Mart Stores): $2.6 million
- Marian Ware (CEO of Ware Family Office): $1.4 million