GOP hopes to strike gold at local Bush fund-raiser

By Warren Cornwall
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Gary Reed will host the fund-raiser in Medina.

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For the second time in a year, Bush will attend a fund-raiser at a Lake Washington shoreline mansion in one of the area's most exclusive suburbs.

The president is scheduled to speak at a dinner event Friday in Medina — one of several tiny Eastside enclaves collectively known as the "Gold Coast" for the abundance of wealthy residents.

The goal is to raise at least $1.75 million from people attending the event at the house of local corporate leader Gary Reed, said U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn, who chairs the Bush-Cheney campaign in Washington.

Medina officials, meanwhile, are hoping the presidential appearance doesn't prove too rich for them. Neighboring Hunts Point wound up with a $23,634 bill for police security surrounding Bush's fund-raising visit last August to the home of wireless-phone mogul Craig McCaw.

"It's a political event; it's not anything else but that. So we ought to be totally reimbursed," Medina City Councilman Pete Vall-Spinosa said at a council meeting Monday night.

"That would be what our goal is," replied Medina Police Chief Jeff Chen.

That traditionally hasn't been the case for local jurisdictions visited by the president, though. Hunts Point wound up paying the bill after trying for months to find someone else willing to take it. Nearly 100 police officers were called to the Hunts Point area in response to planned protests.

"The Secret Service is not equipped or funded to reimburse communities for these costs," said Tom Mazur, spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, which coordinates security for the president and other major political figures, including Democratic candidate John Kerry.

Protesters already are planning to demonstrate near the Bush motorcade as it passes through Medina. They expressed concerns about restrictions on where they will be able to protest.

Activists who met with Chen yesterday said they were told they would be confined to Medina Park, several blocks from the entrance to the Reed house, and possibly to land near an offramp from Highway 520. They had sought to stand at Medina Elementary School, within a block of the Reed property.
 
"Protesters should have access to the people that they're protesting," said Paul Richmond, an attorney working with the protesters who is a Green Party candidate for state attorney general. "Personally, it seems to me that we're losing access to the very people that we want to be witnessing the protest. That's of great concern."

Several hundred protesters could show up for the event, Richmond said.

Chen said protesters can't be accommodated at the school because the U.S. Secret Service already claimed it for its operations. "We're not here to limit anybody's freedom of speech," Chen said. "As long as it doesn't create a public-safety hazard, they'll be permitted to protest."

The fund-raiser should provide crucial money for the Republican National Committee as it ramps up for the November election, said Dunn, R-Bellevue. Because the event is a benefit for the committee, rather than for a candidate, donors don't face the $2,000-per-person limit imposed on contributions to candidates for each election.

Prices are $2,500-per-person. A couple could pay $10,000 for a photograph with the president or $25,000 for a photograph and a private reception, Dunn said.

Money raised by the party can be used for activities such as voter outreach. It should help counter fund-raising on behalf of Democrats by independent organizations known as 527s, Dunn said.

"It's terribly important, especially this year when we've had so much fund-raising competition from the 527s," she said.

Dunn said Reed has been a quiet but important financial backer for Republican causes, with a style that mirrors his presence in the local corporate world. He has been lauded as a vital leader on several corporate boards.

Once the chairman of the board of Simpson Timber, a lumber, paper and plastics-maker founded by his great-grandfather, Reed now sits on the boards of Safeco, Microsoft, Paccar, Washington Mutual and The Seattle Times.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com