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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

“Chasing The Dream” Amway Gives Republicans A Soapbox Meetings Push Partisan Agenda; Group Donates Millions To Gop

Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George Bush are among the dignitaries who have spoken at national Amway conventions.

Don’t expect Bill Clinton, or any other Democrat, to join the list.

Amway and its two founders gave about $2.5 million to the Republican National Committee in 1994, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The company donated $1.3 million to help defray costs of the GOP convention in August.

Amway co-founder Rich DeVos is the former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and is a close adviser to presidential candidate Bob Dole.

Conservative candidates who are also Amway distributors can expect significant support from the organization.

In 1994, distributors donated at least $134,000 to the congressional campaign of their colleague, Sue Myrick, R-N.C. After Myrick won the election, she invited her Amway sponsor to her swearing-in.

This year, U.S. Senate candidate Louis “Woody” Jenkins, a Louisiana Republican, is benefiting from connections he made as an Amway distributor.

Jenkins received contributions from at least 32 states, including $1,000 from Spokane Amway distributor Ron Puryear, according to federal records. DeVos endorsed Jenkins, who promises to fight to abolish the IRS and ban all abortions.

Puryear described the upper echelons of the business as “independent conservatives,” and said distributors are free to follow their own political beliefs.

“We don’t care if you’re a Democrat or Republican,” he said.

But speeches at many Amway meetings are unabashedly partisan, often mixed with religion. Amway distributors attend the rallies to learn the business.

Bill Britt, Puryear’s mentor and the keynote speaker at this weekend’s conference in Spokane, railed against welfare, feminism, homosexuality, government regulations, evolution and academia at a convention in 1981. The speech was taped for sale to distributors.

“You see, I live in a college community, I run into these socialists all the time … I smell them a mile off,” said the former city manager from Raleigh, N.C. “Every time someone introduces himself as a liberal, I know I’m talking to an idiot.”

Britt gave to the Jenkins and Myrick campaigns.

Former President Ford, whose native Michigan is Amway’s home state, was a favorite at the company’s conventions in the 1970s and 1980s.

Reagan spoke at a gathering in Charlotte, N.C., six months before he was elected president in 1980. He was introduced to the cheering crowd as “the hope of America, the dream.”

Bush was paid $100,000 to speak at an Amway convention in 1993.

, DataTimes