Bush Pioneers are people who gathered $100,000 for

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

or 2004 presidential campaign. Two new levels, Bush Rangers and Super Rangers, were bestowed upon supporters who gathered $200,000+ or $300,000+, respectively, for the 2004 campaign, after the 2002 McCain–Feingold campaign finance law raised hard money contribution limits. This was done through the practice of " bundling" contributions. There were 221 Rangers and 327 Pioneers in the 2004 campaign and 241 Pioneers in the 2000 campaign (550 pledged to try). A fourth level, Bush Mavericks, was used to identify fundraisers under 40 years of age who bundled more than $50,000. The Pioneer system was devised by

Karl Rove Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on August 3 ...

. The network has roots in Texan GOP donor lists compiled by Rove, whose political roots are in direct-mail solicitation in the 1980s. Nineteen of the original Pioneers became ambassadors in 2001. Six Pioneers have been convicted of politics-related crimes. Pioneers were involved in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. An analysis in 2006 found that 12 were supporting

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...

, 21 supporting

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

, and 16 supporting

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

. A July 2008 report found fewer than half of the 2004 Pioneers and Rangers had yet contributed their own money to McCain.

Prominent Pioneers, Rangers and Mavericks

Roland Arnall Roland E. Arnall (March 29, 1939 – March 17, 2008) was an American businessman and diplomat. As the owner of ACC Capital Holdings, he became a billionaire with Ameriquest Mortgage. He was the Founder and funded the City of David alone ...

, founder of Ameriquest and former Ambassador to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

*James A. Baker IV, son of

James Baker James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President ...

Haley Barbour Haley Reeves Barbour (born October 22, 1947) is an American attorney, politician, and lobbyist who served as the 63rd governor of Mississippi from 2004 to 2012. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as chairman of the Republican ...

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and former

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fu ...

Chairman *

Marvin Pierce Bush Marvin Pierce Bush (born October 22, 1956) is an American businessman. He is the son of former U.S. president George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush and the brother of former U.S. president George W. Bush; former Florida Governor Jeb Bus ...

* William DeWitt, Jr. of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, head of an investment firm and co-owner of the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

* Richard J. Egan, billionaire from

Hopkinton, Massachusetts Hopkinton is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, west of Boston. The town is best known as the starting point of the Boston Marathon, held annually on Patriots' Day each April, and as the headquarters for the Dell EMC corpo ...

; founder of EMC Corp. and

United States Ambassador to Ireland The United States Ambassador to Ireland is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States of America to Ireland. It is considered a highly prestigious position within the United States Foreign Service. The current ambassa ...

2001–2003; his sons, Christopher and Michael, are also Bush Pioneers. *

Donald Evans Donald Louis Evans (born July 27, 1946) is an American businessman. He was the 34th U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He was appointed by his longtime friend George W. Bush and sworn into office on January 20, 2001. On November 9, 2004, the White Hou ...

Sam Fox Sam Fox (born May 9, 1929) is an American businessman in St. Louis, and the owner of Harbour Group Industries. He was the United States Ambassador to Belgium from April 11, 2007 until January 2, 2009. President George W. Bush appointed Fox to ...

, national chairman of the

Republican Jewish Coalition The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), formerly the National Jewish Coalition, founded in 1985, is a political group in the United States that supports Jewish Republicans. The organization has more than 47 chapters throughout the United States. ...

*Frank E. Fowler, art dealer from

Lookout Mountain, Tennessee Lookout Mountain is a town in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,058 at the 2020 census. Bordering its sister city of Lookout Mountain, Georgia to the south, Lookout Mountain is part of the Chattanooga, TN– GA ...

who represents the

Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In his ...

estate * James H. Harless,

coal baron A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

. *

Dennis Hastert John Dennis Hastert (; born January 2, 1942) is an American former politician and convicted felon who represented from 1987 to 2007 and served as the 51st speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007. The longest-se ...

, former

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

Ray Lee Hunt Ray Lee Hunt (born 1943) is an American billionaire heir and businessman. Early life Hunt is the son of the late H. L. Hunt (1889–1974), founder of Hunt Oil Co. His parents married in 1957. Hunt's sisters include June Hunt, Swanee Hunt, and ...

Ken Lay Kenneth Lee Lay (April 15, 1942 – July 5, 2006) was an American businessman who was the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Enron. He was heavily involved in the eponymous accounting scandal that unraveled in 2001 into the large ...

, former

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. ...

CEO * David B. Montgomery, Founder of Montgomery Law Firm (Houston) *

Robert Mosbacher Robert Adam Mosbacher Sr. (March 11, 1927 – January 24, 2010) was an American businessman, accomplished yacht racer, and a Republican politician. A longtime friend and political ally of George H. W. Bush, Mosbacher served in Bush's Cabinet a ...

, Mosbacher Energy Company *Andrew Bissell *Joe O'Neill, Texas oilman who introduced Mr. Bush to his wife, Laura * David M. Miner, State Representative of North Carolina *

George E. Pataki George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...

, former Governor of New York State. * Stephen Payne (lobbyist) *

Francis Rooney Laurence Francis Rooney III (born December 4, 1953) is an American politician and diplomat who was a U.S. Representative for from 2017 to 2021. A Republican, he served as the United States Ambassador to the Holy See from 2005 until 2008. Represe ...

United States Ambassador to the Holy See The ambassador of the United States to the Holy See is the Ambassadors of the United States, official representative of the United States, United States of America to the Holy See, the leadership of the Catholic Church. The official representatio ...

Robert Rowling Robert B. Rowling (born 1953) is an American billionaire businessman, and the Founder of TRT Holdings, the holding company of Omni Hotels. Early life A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Rowling has an undergraduate degree from the University of Te ...

Andrew Saul Andrew Marshall Saul (born November 6, 1946) is an American businessman and political candidate who served as commissioner of the United States Social Security Administration from 2019 to 2021. Saul was fired from the position by President Jo ...

, Chairman of the

Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board is an independent agency of the United States government by the Federal Employees Retirement System Act of 1986. It has roughly 270 employees. It was established to administer the Thrift Savings Plan ...

* Alex Spanos,

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquir ...

real estate developer and owner of the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

. *

Nate Morris Nathaniel Ryan Morris (born October 16, 1980) is an American businessman. He is the founder of Lexington, Kentucky-based recycling company Morris Industries. He also founded the software company Rubicon Technologies, where he formerly served as C ...

, CEO of

Rubicon The Rubicon ( la, Rubico; it, Rubicone ; rgn, Rubicôn ) is a shallow river in northeastern Italy, just north of Rimini. It was known as Fiumicino until 1933, when it was identified with the ancient river Rubicon, famously crossed by Julius Ca ...

Craig Roberts Stapleton Craig Roberts Stapleton (born 1945) is an American diplomat and businessman. He served as Ambassador to France and the Czech Republic during the administrations of President George W. Bush. Biography Early life Craig Stapleton was born in Kansa ...

Jerry Weintraub Jerome Charles "Jerry" Weintraub (September 26, 1937 – July 6, 2015) was an American film producer, talent manager and actor whose television films won him three Emmys. He began his career as a talent agent, having managed relatively unknown ...

, film producer, including ''

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

'' and ''

Ocean's Eleven ''Ocean's Eleven'' is a 2001 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh from a screenplay by Ted Griffin. The first installment in the ''Ocean's'' film trilogy, it is a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film of the same name. The fil ...

''. * Jim Wilkinson *

Charles Wyly Charles Wyly, Jr. (October 13, 1933 – August 7, 2011), was an American entrepreneur and businessman, philanthropist, civic leader, and a major contributor to Republican causes and art projects in Dallas, Texas. This included $20 million to b ...

and

Sam Wyly Samuel Evans Wyly (born October 4, 1934) is an American businessman. He first appeared on ''Forbes''s list of richest Americans in 2000 with a net worth of $750 million, and he remained on that list throughout 2010 with a net worth of $1 billio ...

, Texas brothers who collectively represented Bush's 9th greatest career contributor. *

Aldona Wos Aldona Zofia Wos (born March 26, 1955) is a Polish-American former physician and Republican politician who served in various positions at several government agencies under Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump and nonprofit organizations. S ...

, Physician, later

United States Ambassador Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the president to serve as the country's diplomatic representatives to foreign nations, international organizations, and as ambassadors-at-large. Under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, and wife of future U.S. Postmaster General

Louis DeJoy Louis DeJoy (born June 20, 1957) is an American businessman serving as the 75th U.S. postmaster general. He was appointed in May 2020 by the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service (USPS). Prior to the appointment, he was the fo ...

References

White House for Sale.org
with interactive name links.

Noe indicted: GOP backer is accused of laundering cash
Mike Wilkinson and James Drew, ''

Toledo Blade ''The Blade'', also known as the ''Toledo Blade'', is a newspaper in Toledo, Ohio published daily online and printed Thursday and Sunday by Block Communications. The newspaper was first published on December 19, 1835. Overview The first issue o ...

'', October 28, 2005

External links

*Jim Hightower
$hrub's Pioneer$
''BushFiles.com'', May 28, 1999. *Charles Laurence
Bush's Rangers on trail to round up record $200m
''news.telegraph.co.uk'', June 15, 2003. *Steve Kingstone
Bush begins fundraising drive
''BBC'', June 18, 2003: "If

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

was the consummate campaigner, George Bush is the final word in campaign fundraising."
Editorial: Bush's Rangers / Money shouldn't make the political world go round
''post-gazette'', July 21, 2003. *Dave McKenna

''WashingtonCityPaper'', September 13, 2003. *Thomas B. Edsall and Sarah Cohen

{cbignore, bot=medic, ''Washington Post'', October 15, 2003: "The record receipts -- more than triple the top Democrat's fundraising for the quarter -- were driven in large part by just 285 men and women, who collected $38.5 million or more, which was at least 45 percent of Bush's total take. This fundraising elite, many of whom were beneficiaries of Bush administration policies, included 100 'Rangers,' who raised at least $200,000 apiece, and 185 'Pioneers,' who collected at least $100,000 each." *Jim Drinkard and Laurence McQuillan

''USAToday'', October 16, 2003. *Glen Justice

''New York Times'', October 23, 2003: "A study to be released today shows that the financial community has surpassed all other groups, including lawyers and lobbyists, as the top industry among Mr. Bush's elite fund-raisers. The list of those generating $100,000 and $200,000 now includes chief executives like

Henry M. Paulson Henry Merritt Paulson Jr. (born March 28, 1946) is an American banker and financier who served as the 74th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 2006 to 2009. Prior to his role in the Department of the Treasury, Paulson was the Chairman a ...

of Goldman Sachs, John J. Mack of

Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston, First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse, ...

and Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch, whose firm has already raised twice the amount for Mr. Bush's re-election that it did during the entire 2000 campaign cycle. ... 'It's really a question of policy, that's what's driving this,' said Marc Lackritz, president of the

Securities Industry Association The Securities Industry Association (SIA) was an association of firms and people who handle securities (in the financial sense) (stocks, bonds and their derivatives). In 2006, it merged with the Bond Market Association to form the Securities ...

, which represents more than 650 securities firms. 'It's a pro-investor policy.'" *Glen Justice
Newcomers Provide Fuel for Bush Money Machine
''New York Times'', March 14, 2004. *Thomas B. Edsall, Sarah Cohen and James V. Grimaldi

''Washington Post'', May 16, 2004. *Jonathan E. Kaplan
"RNC offers 'Super Ranger' status,"
''The Hill'', May 18, 2004. *Greg Palast
"Give It Back, George. Did Wyly Coyotes' Ill-Gotten Loot Buy White House?,"
''gregpalast.com'', April 11, 2005. *John Cheeves
"Kentucky 'Maverick' reels in serious cash for GOP campaign"
''Lexington Herald-Leader'', August 29, 2004. George W. Bush * *