President Bush collected more than $5.2 million for his re-election campaign in two brief California appearances Friday, part of a two-week blitz that is expected to help him shatter the fund-raising record for a White House campaign.
Six weeks after declaring his intention to seek re-election, Bush is poised to collect as much as $30 million by the end of June–roughly the same amount raised by all nine Democratic candidates in the first quarter of the year.
During his first stop Friday, Bush spoke at a $1.6 million lunchtime fundraiser in San Francisco, where he told about 800 backers that they were “laying the foundation for a nationwide victory next year.” In the evening he addressed about 1,800 donors in Los Angeles.
In both cities, large crowds of anti-Bush demonstrators gathered near the hotels where the president spoke. But they were kept a good distance away.
The demonstrations suggested that California still looms as challenging political turf for the president, who lost the state to then-Vice President Al Gore by 12 percentage points in 2000.
Preston Wood, co-coordinator of a group that organized the Los Angeles protest, said there is widespread discontent with the war in Iraq and the administration’s domestic policies.
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“We think it’s outrageous that billions of dollars are being spent on a war of conquest,” said Wood, who represents the Los Angeles chapter of Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. “We demand that that money be used to rebuild our cities and provide the services that people want.”
The president’s two Friday events closed a week bracketed by political pilgrimages to the nation’s two most populous states, which he lost to Gore by a total of 2.7 million votes in 2000. In New York on Monday, Bush raised $4 million. The Los Angeles event was expected to raise $3.6 million, according to Gerald Parsky, chairman of Bush’s California campaign.
By staging high-profile campaign events in both states, especially this far before the election, Bush is signaling his intention to harness his wartime popularity in hopes of making stronger showings in New York and California next year.
“Both New York and California are still long shots for Bush, but if he is even competitive in one of those states it will cause the Democrats to waste money, and probably signal that the election is moving in Bush’s direction,” said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.
After a weekend at his Texas ranch, Bush will return to the fundraising trail Monday, making appearances in Miami and Tampa. The campaign expects to raise $170 million or more–all to be used between now and September 2004, when Bush is to be renominated in New York City.
In 2000, Bush set a record by raising more than $100 million.