The leading contenders in this year's presidential race all come with career-long ties to a host of special interests largely unknown to voters, according to a new study of money and presidential politics.
Among the study's findings:- NationsBank lent the Democratic Party $3.5 million on favorable terms two weeks after Presi-dent Clinton signed a bill that would save the bank an estimated $50 million a year. Bank President Hugh McColl had become one of Clinton's closest advisers on banking matters.
- Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole has received $381,000 in support over his long career from an interest far from Kansas - California's Gallo winery. Dole has supported tax and regulatory policies worth many times that to the company.
- The top support for Texas Sen. Phil Gramm has come not from his state's oil industry but from the National Rifle Association, which gave him $440,200. The favor has worked both ways: Gramm has written letters soliciting donations to the gun-rights group.
"The point is, we're not just electing politicians," said Charles Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity and the study's primary author. "It's a package deal. We're also electing their patrons and their priorities. We think the public should know what these alignments and entanglements and relationships are."
Lewis and a team of researchers have published "The Buying of the President," a 271-page paperback designed to educate voters about the financial support systems of the Republican and Democratic parties and their leading presidential contenders.
Already, he said, the 1996 election looks like the most expensive in history, with $100 million raised before the first vote is cast in a primary. Those dollars, at least as much as the votes that follow, determine who the nominees will be, said Lewis.
"It's not a horse race or a beauty contest," he said. "It's a giant auction."
By now the Whitewater land deal that has bedeviled Clinton is well-known to the public. But Lewis said at least three other candidates have benefited from real estate dealings with some of their political supporters.
The study recounts how Gramm received more than $50,000 worth of free remodeling work on his vacation home on Maryland's Eastern Shore from a Texas savings-and-loan operator and builder; Dole and his wife bought a Florida condominium previously owned by Dwayne Andreas, chairman of agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland; and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and several political contributors owned land whose value would have been enhanced by a major new highway he proposed to build while governor.
In each case, the candidates denied any wrongdoing. But Lewis said the dealings illustrate "a corrosive process, that anyone who gets involved becomes tarnished. Before we elect another president, we better know what we're getting. If there's another Whitewater in someone's background, it would be nice to know about it before the campaign."
Clinton's top campaign supporter is the New York investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, the source of $107,850 in total campaign giving. The company's former chairman, Robert Rubin, is Clinton's treasury secretary.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Political patrons
Top career patrons of leading presidential candidates, as compiled by the Center for Public Integrity:
President Clinton: Goldman Sachs, investment banking, New York, $107,850. New York State United Teachers, $101,819. Jackson Stephens family, holding company and oil, Little Rock, Ark., $53,600. Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher, law firm, Washington, $50,075. Gallo family, wine, Modesto, Calif., $50,000.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan.: Ernest & Julio Gallo winery, Modesto, $381,000. MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., New York, $277,500. Koch Industries, oil, Wichita, Kan., $245,000. Archer Daniels Midland, agribusiness, Decatur, Ill., 217,800. American Citizens for Political Action, conservative PAC, $192,580.
Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas: National Rifle Association, Fairfax, Va., $440,200. American Medical Association, Washington, $140,467. Conservative National Committee, Washington, $103,259. Boone Pickens/Mesa Petroleum, Dallas, $73,408. First City Bancorp., bank holding company, Houston, $66,925.
Lamar Alexander: David K. Wilson family, real estate/banking, Nashville, Tenn., $83,750. Amon Carter Evans family, media, Nashville, $43,782. Jack C. Massey family, investment/finance, Nashville, $30,350. John L. Parish family, manufacturing, Tullahoma, Tenn., $30,165. Wine and Spirits Wholesalers, Nashville, $28,000.
Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind.: Eli Lilly Co. and employees, pharmaceuticals, Indianapolis, $82,693. Associated General Contractors of America, Washington, $48,500. Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago, $30,000. National Association of Home Builders, Washington, $29,500. American Bankers Association, Washington, $28,500.
Pat Buchanan: The Vopnford family, recreation, Blair, Neb., $10,000. The Cheval family, Hinsdale, Ill., $6,500. America's Political Action Committee, Herndon, Va., $5,000. Bart Stanley, Citizens for American Restoration, Houston, $5,000. The Zignego family, road construction, Milwaukee, $5,000.