2008 Woodie Awards
College Fund-Raising Group Milks Senior Citizens
David Postman & Jim Brunner
Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: Life & Times
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The College Republican National Committee has raised nearly $8 million this year through an aggressive and misleading fundraising campaign that collected money from senior citizens who thought they were giving to the election efforts of President Bush and other top Republicans.
Many of the top donors were in their 80s and 90s. The donors wrote checks _ sometimes hundreds and, in at least two cases, totaling more than $100,000 _ to groups with offi cial sounding- names such as "Republican
Headquarters 2004," "Republican Elections Committee" and the "National Republican Campaign Fund."
But all of those groups, according to the small print on the letters, were simply projects of the College Republicans, who collected all of the checks.
And little of the money went to election efforts.
Of the money spent by the group this year, nearly 90 percent went to direct-mail vendors
and postage expenses, according to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Some of the elderly donors, meanwhile, wound up bouncing checks and emptying their bank
accounts.
"I don't have any more money," said Cecilia Barbier, a 90-year old retired church council worker in New York City. "I'm stopping giving to everybody. That was all
my savings that they got."
Barbier said she "wised up." But not before she made more than 300 donations totaling nearly $100,000 this year, the group's
fund-raising records show.
Now, she said, "I'm really scrounging."
In Van Buren, Ark., Monda Jo Millsap, 68, said she emptied her savings account by writing checks to College Republicans, then got a bank loan of $5,000 and sent that,too, before totaling her donations at more than $73,000.
College Republicans serve as the party's outreach organization on college campuses. The group has been a starting place for many
prominent conservatives, including Bush adviser Karl Rove, antitax activist Grover Norquist and former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed.
Many of the top donors were in their 80s and 90s. The donors wrote checks _ sometimes hundreds and, in at least two cases, totaling more than $100,000 _ to groups with offi cial sounding- names such as "Republican
Headquarters 2004," "Republican Elections Committee" and the "National Republican Campaign Fund."
But all of those groups, according to the small print on the letters, were simply projects of the College Republicans, who collected all of the checks.
And little of the money went to election efforts.
Of the money spent by the group this year, nearly 90 percent went to direct-mail vendors
and postage expenses, according to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Some of the elderly donors, meanwhile, wound up bouncing checks and emptying their bank
accounts.
"I don't have any more money," said Cecilia Barbier, a 90-year old retired church council worker in New York City. "I'm stopping giving to everybody. That was all
my savings that they got."
Barbier said she "wised up." But not before she made more than 300 donations totaling nearly $100,000 this year, the group's
fund-raising records show.
Now, she said, "I'm really scrounging."
In Van Buren, Ark., Monda Jo Millsap, 68, said she emptied her savings account by writing checks to College Republicans, then got a bank loan of $5,000 and sent that,too, before totaling her donations at more than $73,000.
College Republicans serve as the party's outreach organization on college campuses. The group has been a starting place for many
prominent conservatives, including Bush adviser Karl Rove, antitax activist Grover Norquist and former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed.
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