When it comes to big-time campaign contributors, ideologues are often the most noble. They tend to give because they believe in ideas, not because they want some personal favor in return. Peter Buttenweiser, a Philadelphia philanthropist, is a good case in point. For years, he was one of the Democratic Party’s biggest benefactors ($1.3 million in the 2000 cycle), but he was always open about his reasons for giving. He was a progressive, and he wanted Republicans to lose. He also disliked the corruption that surrounded his business. In 1996, when he was asked by Clinton family fundraiser Terry McAulliffe to give $50,000 for an intimate lunch with President Clinton, Buttenweiser went public with what he saw as an inappropriate sale of a seat at the table.
On the other side of the spectrum are the capitalist donors. These are people who have clear financial interests and they give money based on which party or politician can best further those interests. Of course, this is a harder breed to identify, because even the most dastardly business donor usually claims to have more noble reasons.
Which brings us to the case of Robert Congel, a wealthy real estate developer. He is a very generous political giver–almost always to Republicans. He was a “Ranger” fundraiser for George W. Bush, raising at least $200,000 in the 2004 cycle. He gave money in this last cycle to Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney. He gave $25,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. In some ways, this may make him look like a classic ideological donor, a rich guy who likes the Republican cause. But Congel has a few exceptions to his Republican-only rule, including an apparent soft-spot for the family Clinton–and I am not just talking about his regular contributions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The inestimable Charlie Savage, now of the New York Times, had a story yesterday laying out the case.
An upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project. Mrs. Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert J. Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse. Mrs. Clinton also helped secure a provision in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction. The bill with the tax-free bonds provision became law in October 2004, weeks before the donation, and the highway bill with the set-aside became law in August 2005, about nine months after the donation.
I have a vivid memory of the Destiny USA issue from back in 2004 and 2005, when I was reporting a story about all the waste and earmarks in Washington. It was not hard to figure out that the whole “Green Bonds” program pushed by Clinton for Destiny was bad policy. It cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and subsidized the construction of about four shopping malls in the name of the environment. That’s right: shopping malls to save the environment. At the time, as Savage notes, Clinton bragged about her efforts to send federal money to get a new New York mall. “I worked successfully to get the green bonds passed,” she crowed. “I think it would be a big shot in the arm.”
Now we know that at the same time Clinton was working to funnel millions of dollars in tax breaks to Congel, Congel was writing a $100,000 check to Bill Clinton’s foundation, a contribution that has been shrouded in secrecy for four years. Of course, Congel now says he only gave money to the Clinton Foundation because the former president was a “dedicated, dedicated” American. If you believe that, I would like to talk to you about this idea I have. I want to build three shopping malls–in Yellowstone, in Yosemite and on the rim of the Grand Canyon. They will be crazy energy efficient, and really good for the environment. How much money you got?
ALSO: I have a new Time.com story up about Obama’s big day in Washington.