Freeman helped raise $40 million as finance chairman of the Bush inaugural committee, and he donated the $100,000 maximum. He and his brother, a North Dakota attorney, were both Bush Pioneers in 2000, meaning they raised at least $100,000.
Quid pro quos are illegal, but giving fundraisers plum jobs is a bipartisan tradition. Altogether, at least 146 of the Pioneers and Rangers got federal jobs or appointments, some of them in positions to regulate their industries, according to a study by the nonpartisan Texans for Public Justice, which tracks the influence of money in politics. At least two became Cabinet members, 47 were named to postelection transition teams and 24 were made ambassadors.
California's share of Pioneers and Rangers trails only those of Texas and Florida. Of $213 million raised for the Republican presidential campaign, the Bush campaign has raised at least $15.9 million from Californians, compared with $7.6 million for the same period in 2000, according to Dwight L. Morris and Associates, which tracks the data.
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Institutionalized access
Freeman's friends say personal loyalty drives his fundraising.
"What makes him a great friend of the president is he's never asked him for favors," said California Education Secretary Richard J. Riordan, Freeman's onetime business partner. Riordan hosted a $400,000 Bush fundraiser in 1999, and Freeman is credited with winning Bush's backing for Riordan's unsuccessful 2002 gubernatorial run.
After all, "he's got his job; he's got his mistress; he's got his airplane," Riordan said, adding: "Just kidding."
Critics say the fundraising fraternity institutionalizes special access to the White House for a privileged clique of businessmen, lobbyists and Friends of George. "If you look at a list of Bush Pioneers and Rangers, you'll see a lot of these people had connections with Bush and his businesses, with oil companies and with his father's campaigns," said James Benton, of Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that tracks the links between money and politics.
Andrew Wheat, of Texans for Public Justice, said the system allows initiates -- overwhelmingly affluent white men -- access they can use to lobby for government contracts or reduce regulatory pressure on their industries."
"For professional lobbyists to argue they have no interest in government is laughable," Wheat said. "People who have the wherewithal to raise $100,000 are not your average people. They're from elite schools and elite backgrounds.
