McCain's Colorado money machine
By: sontazershrein3/25/2008 - 2:56pm
Arizona Sen. John McCain hits Denver Thursday to pick up a stack of cash for his presidential campaign.
A private roundtable with McCain will be held for his Colorado Finance Committee at 5:30 p.m. at The Petroleum Club at the downtown Denver Athletic Club. Attendees at the roundtable were to raise $25,000 apiece, according to the invitation.
That will be followed by a photo opportunity with McCain for $2,300 per person, then a general reception for $1,000 per person.
About 150 people total are expected, according to Curt Cerveny, a member of the host committee, who said Colorado Republicans are unified behind McCain to elect him president.
As noted in an earlier story, many in Colorado's GOP establishment who had backed Mitt Romney moved quickly to support McCain once Romney dropped out in February.
The names on the McCain invite reflect prior divisions of various sorts:
- Former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez is on the host committee, while Marc Holtzman (who unsuccessfully challenged Beauprez for the 2006 Republican gubernatorial nomination in Colorado) is an event co-chair. Beauprez formerly supported Romney for president; Holtzman supported Rudy Giuliani.
- Former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, who previously supported Romney, is an honorary chairman of the event, while Frances Owens is on the host committee. Bill and Frances Owens announced their divorce in January.
- John Malone and Greg Maffei, the chairman and chief executive, respectively, of Liberty Media Corp., are event chairs for the McCain fundraiser; as are Charlie and Candy Ergen, co-founders of EchoStar Corp. Liberty Media owns DirecTV, the arch-rival of EchoStar's Dish Network. McCain sits on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee and was once its chairman.
Also named as event chairs are Brian Deevy, chairman and chief of RBC Daniels; and Mary Smith, who previously backed Giuliani and is chair of the Denver County Republicans.
Earlier Thursday, McCain is scheduled to have a fundraising luncheon in Salt Lake City; on Friday, a fundraiser in Las Vegas.
Below is the list of those named on the invite for the Denver event as the "2008 Finance Committee"
Honorary Chairmen
Senator Wayne Allard
Governor Bill Owens
Event Chairs
Greg Maffei
Mary Smith
Brian Deevy
John Malone
Charlie and Candy Ergen
Event Co-chairs
Marti Allbright Whitmore
Steve Anderson
Bob Hawk
Marc Holtzman
Jeremy Kinney
David Lauriski
The Honorable Don Marostica
Pete Coors
The Honorable Scott McInnis
Dave McReynolds
Eric Morgan
The Honorable Jim Nicholson
The Honorable Jane and Mike Norton
John Osborne
Blair Richardson
Scot Sellers
Greg Walcher
Dick Robinson
Mary Woodard
Host Committee
Wil Armstrong
The Honorable Bob and Claudia Beauprez
Judy Black
The Honorable Hank Brown
The Honorable Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Curt Cerveny
Lynne & Bo Cottrell
Alex Cranberg
The Honorable Doug Dean
Sergio Gutierrez
The Honorable Bill Hybl
The Honorable Doug Lamborn
The Honorable Andrew McElhaney
The Honorable Marilyn Musgrave
Lilly Nunez
Frances Owens
Bentley Rayburn
Gabriel Schwartz
The Honorable Lola Spradley
Walker Stapleton
The Honorable John Suthers
The Honorable Tom Wiens
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McCain Money Expresss...........
Maybe he should go pick up the cure for being a flip-flopping liar and War-Monger as well. He could stop @ his favorite store where he buys his incontinence supplies.... Walgreens? Maybe he could do another 100 years in Depends?
Perhaps former Rep. Bob Beauprez could get another federal employee to break the law and open secure files they are not authorized to look at?
At $25K per handshake, These folks do not sound like they have the best interests of the common man in Colorado or the Country at heart.
Can you spell 'special interest'? I know you can!