Hard Cash Is Main Course for GOP Fundraiser

Kingston, who is also vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, held weekly meetings with his team captains and called members who were not meeting their goals to give them a boost. Kingston, the son of an educational psychologist, said he is using the same formula to motivate members to raise money that he used when he was in his twenties and selling commercial insurance strictly on commission: Make it fun, while warning of what could go wrong.

"Politics is a dangerous world where all the tides ebb and flow real quickly," he said. "We have to raise money to compete in the marketplace."

The House expects to hit its goal of $14 million. The Senate side, led by Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), expects to exceed its $8 million goal by $1 million. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the lead committee for the dinner, set goals of $25,000 to $750,000.

Of the House's $14 million, $10 million is expected to come from lawmakers' fundraising and a Washington program aimed at K Street, run by former House members Bill Paxon and his wife, Susan Molinari. The remaining $4 million is expected to come from NRCC mail and telemarketing. An individual can give as much as $26,700 to national party committees in a calendar year, so could buy as many as 10 tickets.

Lawmakers spur donations with dire warnings about a possible Democratic takeover. A sample script in the House members' packets urged them to point out: "The GOP since 1856 has always lost seats when a Republican President is in power during a second mid-term election. . . . History is once again against us in 2006."

Members were given a red folder with an Excel spreadsheet showing their goals, which range from $150,000 for members of the leadership to $50,000 for average members. After a House member turns in a yellow "commitment form" from a person or political action committee, the NRCC's 14-member finance staff follows up to get the check or take a credit-card number.

Most of the easy-to-get K Street cash from lobbyists, trade associations and political action committees was scooped up this spring by an $8 million NRCC gala and a $15 million Republican National Committee dinner. That means that about 70 percent of the haul tonight will come from doctors, small-business people and other beyond-the-Beltway types that Kingston refers to as "Joe Idaho."

Among them is Ralph B. Buckner Jr. of Cleveland, Tenn., who owns seven funeral homes in Tennessee and Georgia and who bought enough tickets to fill half a table -- totaling $12,500 -- from Rep. Zach Wamp (Tenn.). Buckner, 49, and his wife, Chari, are making a four-day trip of it. "It's not something I would or could do every year, trust me," he said.

Wamp, who collected triple his quota of $50,000, recalled a speech he gave at the first organizational meeting for the dinner.

He told members: "If you don't think it's all on the line, you haven't studied history."