Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon News

Where's the beef?
Bulls, bears and the volatile price of gasoline aside, evidence to support the Fed's fears about inflation is hard to find.
By Merrill Goozner
[10/20/99]

Another Dole bites the dust
Conservatives give the post-mortem on the Elizabeth Dole presidential campaign.
By Jake Tapper
[10/20/99]

Is Hatfield the real McCoy?
Under attack, the author of a new George W. Bush bio lies low while its editor takes the hard questions -- and stands by the drug-arrest allegation.
By Craig Offman and Daryl Lindsey
[10/20/99]

Money talks, reform walks
The McCain-Feingold campaign-finance bill died in the Senate on Tuesday. Again.
By Jake Tapper
[10/19/99]

The end of a nightmare
After her husband was killed in Chile's bloody coup, Joyce Horman thought the only justice would come from telling her story. Now she has reason to hope those responsible will be forced to face the truth.
By Itay Hod
[10/19/99]

Complete archives for News

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

But GOP front-runner George W. Bush is serving notice that he intends to fight for the nation's largest state and biggest electoral prize.

Wednesday, in yet another indicator that Bush plans to run a serious campaign in California, loyalists took control of the state party apparatus. With his campaign coffers overflowing, Bush has the luxury of battling for California next fall. At the very least, he can force Democrats to spend money defending a state that has been crucial to their national election strategy throughout the 1990s.

Bush's latest quarterly campaign finance reports were released on Friday. And while the big numbers -- $20.1 million raised, $12.7 million spent, with $37.7 million cash in the bank -- have gotten most of the attention, where Bush is spending his money reveals his strategy for winning the White House. And that strategy clearly includes capturing California, which has more than a fifth of the votes needed to win the presidency.

In all, Bush has spent more than $900,000 in the Golden State, the bulk of which has been spent on fund-raising and media reimbursements. While he has yet to invest in heavy infrastructure in the state, Bush does have a fully operational campaign office, and has been aggressively raising money. Over the past six months Bush has spent nearly twice as much money in California as any of his potential adversaries, Democrat or Republican. Between April 1 and June 30, Bush reported to the Federal Election Commission that he spent $157,000 in the Golden State. Expenditure reports just released by the Bush campaign and analyzed by Salon News show that for the three months ending Sept. 30, Bush pumped another $758,000 into California-based entities.

By comparison, the next-biggest spender in California is Vice President Al Gore, who has spent a total of $496,000. The other contenders are even further down the monetary food chain. Federal Election Commission filings show that Bush's fellow Republican, Elizabeth Dole (who just announced her withdrawal from the race) had spent $85,000. Sen. John McCain spent $48,000. Democratic contender Bill Bradley has spent a total of $72,000.

Bush forces have also staged a bloodless coup within the state Republican Party ranks. State Sen. Jim Brulte, a staunch Bush ally and a proven fund-raiser, resigned his post as Bush's California campaign co-chairman to become finance director of the state party Wednesday. In effect, Brulte's role change means that the California Republican Party and the Bush campaign are one and the same.

Next page | Bush is spending almost as much in California as in states with upcoming primaries