Demos Say Gore At Center Of Controversial Fund Raising

Vice President Al Gore played the central role in raising millions of dollars during the buildup to the 1996 election, sometimes using direct solicitations that several Democratic donors said they found heavy-handed and inappropriate, The Washington Post reported.

The report in today’s editions said Gore has established a national fund-raising network that is the most formidable in American politics. And it quoted two senior Democratic officials as saying Gore became known at the Democratic National Committee as the administration’s “solicitor-in-chief” after President Clinton refused to make direct appeals for money.

With growing public concern about the current system of political fund raising, the Post quoted one close Gore associate as saying, “Al could be the victim of his own success.”

The newspaper said DNC records made available to it show that, in addition to scores of direct telephone calls, Gore played a traditional fund-raising role in attending 39 events as the principal attraction, raising $8.74 million for the DNC in 1995-96.

He also was the principal at 23 White House kaffeeklatches and joined Clinton at eight others. Moreover, the Post said, Gore used the vice president’s residence for a number of so-called “donor stroking” events such as a May 7, 1996, dinner for 50 supporters who already had raised at least $100,000 each.

The Post noted that it is not illegal for a vice president to solicit campaign contributions, but it said Gore’s direct telephone solicitations apparently were unprecedented for a sitting vice president - based on contact with three former vice presidents.

The Post said Gore declined repeated requests to be interviewed for the article, but that his spokeswoman, Lorraine Voles, said Friday: “There is nothing inappropriate about the vice president calling people for money.”

It quoted her as saying Gore sees no distinction between attending routine fund-raising events and personally soliciting contributions.

The paper said Gore told associates he found fund raising distasteful and that one of them said the vice president made fund-raising calls with “bamboo under the fingernails.”