- WASHINGTON - While the 2004
ballot is setting up to be one of the most divisive elections in history,
campaign contributors to the candidates are looking more similar than ever.
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- Presidential Candidate John Kerry has received increasingly
more donations from employees of companies that have historically made
large donations to President George W. Bush's campaign.
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- In fact, Bush and Kerry now share four of the same 10
largest donors this election cycle, all of whom are financial corporations,
according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity.
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- Kerry Cycle Patrons Bush Cycle Patrons
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- Harvard University $213,045
- Pricewaterhouse Coopers $488,600
- Citigroup $169,254.00
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. $486,125
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom $169,225.00
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- Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. $455,904
- Time Warner $158,506
- UBS AG Inc $368,900
- Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi $150,250
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- Goldman Sachs Group $295,950
- UBS AG Inc $138,700.00
- Credit Suisse First Boston $271,650
- Goldman Sachs Group $127,750
- Ernst & Young LLP $267,105
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- Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson $124,152
- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. $263,200
- Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky $102,051
- MBNA Corp. $251,000
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. $100,204
- Citigroup $246,645
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- Until this cycle, most of Kerry's top contributors had
come from the telecommunications industry and law firms. Most of Bush's
largest donors remain consistent: financial corporations with executives
who have pledged to raise money for the president's reelection.
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- Like Bush, who pioneered the use of bundling fundraisers,
Kerry lists more than 500 independent fundraisers of his own 10 of whom
are associated with Citigroup, UBS Financial Services, Goldman Sachs and
Morgan Stanley. Bush currently lists almost 600 fundraisers, whom the campaign
designates as Rangers, Pioneers or Mavericks based on the amounts they
have raised. Rangers have raised $200,000.00 or more, Pioneers $100,000
and Mavericks, $50,000.
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- Bush's top career patrons are Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
& Co., Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc and Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Kerry's
largest career donors are Harvard University, Time Warner and Mintz, Levin,
Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo.
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- A database of each candidate's income and assets can
be found in the Buying of the President Document Warehouse.
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- http://www.publicintegrity.org/bop2004/report.aspx?aid=374&sid=200
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