President Bush is keeping the money raised by a second Pioneer who has been indicted. Tom Noe, a prolific fundraiser for Bush, was recently indicted on 53 counts. Noe has also been a major source of embarassment for Republican Governor Bob Taft, of Ohio.
Democratic National Committee officials said yesterday's indictment of Tom Noe is a prime example of the corruption plaguing Washington and Columbus.
The 53-count indictment against the former GOP fund-raiser comes on the heels of the guilty plea entered last month by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is at the center of a wide-reaching corruption scandal in Washington. Both Mr. Noe and Mr. Abramoff share the elite status of Bush "Pioneers" because they raised at least $100,000 for the President's re-election campaign in 2004.
Mr. Bush has returned $4,000 in campaign contributions from Mr. Noe and his wife, as well as $6,000 from Mr. Abramoff, his wife, and a client, but he has not returned the money the men raised for his re-election campaign. Yesterday, the DNC reiterated its call for Mr. Bush to return money raised by Mr. Noe and other "indicted fund-raisers."
"Tom Noe stole millions from Ohio workers and used it to help elect a governor who became the first convicted criminal to lead Ohio and a President whose administration is even more corrupt than Richard Nixon's," said Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the DNC.
The Bush administration could easily return the money raised by Noe and Abramoff, as their campaign had a sophisticated system for tracking which fundraisers raised what money. Each Pioneer was even assigned a tracking number, which was used in their campaign database to give credit to the Pioneer for specific funds raised.