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“THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Have you asked your Senator/Cong/legislator if THEY’VE ever spent time at Casa de Campo resort in the Dominican Republic?”

http://www.casadecampoluxuryvillas.com/cdc.php

At least twenty subdivisions make up the residential aspect of Casa de Campo, consisting of over 1,350 villas and condominiums. Casa de Campo is “established luxury.” The world’s elite vacation and mingle here. Properties have maintained their values and are consistently on the rise. Here you can experience the most active lifestyle, or the most secluded retreat. In 2005 alone, Bill Gates, George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton have made Casa de Campo their chosen vacation spot, Beyonce recently spent New Year’s at the resort.

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/partypictures/2003/4.18.03/partypictures4.18.03.php

Notes from Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic

Last weekend golfers from all over the world flew in to the Dominican Republic for Alfy Fanjul’s 17th annual Sugar Golf Tournament and Bren and Mel Simon’s “Safari Gala” in the gardens of their spectacular house, “Casa Luna” in Casa de Campo.

Bren Simon
The Simons, in from Indianapolis, and Emilia and Pepe Fanjul flew down from Palm Beach with Pauline Pitt, Jamie Niven, Lillian Fernandez (Alfy’s daughter) and Jim Mitchell, and gave a dinner at “Casa Grande,” the Fanjul compound at Casa de Campo. Rolando Gonzalez-Bunster gave a fundraising dinner for former President Bill Clinton, at his house in Casa de Campo, which benefited President Clinton’s AIDS foundation and the Clinton Library. Emilia and Pepe and Rolando Bunster’s dinner started the week-long festivities. President Clinton played golf with Mel Simon and George Hamilton and then flew to Haiti for a fundraising dinner for his AIDS foundation.

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Lobbyists add political sweetener
St. Petersburg Times - Tuesday, May 17, 1994
Author: KARL VICK

EXCERPT

Executive charm

Even in the lobby of the U.S. Capitol, Alfonso “”Alfie’’ Fanjul makes an impression.

Gliding out of a caucus room into a hallway crowded with tourists, the Flo-Sun chief executive displays the veneer and prosperous bearing of a matinee idol.

Reporters approach and, smiling, the millionaire repeats an encouraging word about NAFTA, which was the latest victory for Florida sugar, and praise for President Clinton, the newest friend of the Fanjul family of Palm Beach.

Except on the charity social circuit, the Fanjuls keep a low profile in Florida. Their business phone is answered by repeating the number just dialed: “”six three oh three.’’ But in Washington they personify Florida’s sugar industry almost as thoroughly as they dominated Cuba’s before Fidel Castro.

Every political fund-raiser in either party knows one of the Fanjul brothers by name.

In 1992, while his sibling raised money for Bill Clinton, Jose “”Pepe’’ Fanjul worked to re-elect George Bush. Four years earlier he raised more than $100,000 for Bush, and took his wife, Emilia, to a state dinner in the White House.

Pepe Fanjul was also close to the Cabinet. Eyebrows were raised when Bush’s Commerce Secretary, Robert Mosbacher, was a guest at the Fanjuls’ luxury resort complex, CasadeCampo in the DominicanRepublic , where they have even larger sugar holdings than in Florida. Mosbacher and his wife, Georgette, also flew to the Fanjuls’ hunting lodge near Okeechobee.

At the time, the Commerce Department was considering candymaker E.J. Brach’s request for a free-trade zone that would let it buy sugar at the world price, instead of the higher price the federal program assures growers. Mosbacher headed the U.S. Free Trade Zone Board, which turned down Brach’s. He said he played no part in the decision.

With a Democrat in the White House, the Fanjuls have suffered no loss of access. As co-chair of Clinton’s Florida campaign, Alfonso Fanjul hosted a Miami fund-raiser that raised $120,000 for the candidate. The family gave the Clinton campaign $74,000 between the Florida primary and the Democratic convention, a sizeable chunk of the more than $1-million the family and its employees have dropped into federal campaigns since 1979.

At the Little Rock economic summit in December of 1992, many of the 300 business leaders present claimed to be close to the president-elect. Alfonso Fanjul was seated three chairs from him.

So it was that the Fanjuls became architects of the Everglades clean-up plan recently signed by Gov. Lawton Chiles, but first laid out to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in a private meeting with Flo-Sun shortly after the inauguration. When Babbitt announced the plan five months later, Alfonso Fanjul called it the fulfillment of Clinton’s campaign promise to make business and government partners for the environment. Environmentalists called it the Fanjuls’ campaign contributions at work.