Kerry revving up his money machine

With a cadre of loyalists and fresh lack of Democratic foes, the candidate is amassing sizable sums in Florida.

Kerry's top Florida fundraisers

Only John Kerry's most elite fundraisers possess the button: "4 JK B4 IA."

It's a badge of honor for 182 people across America who worked feverishly to help Kerry before the Iowa caucuses pulled him from the cellar and launched him to the Democratic presidential nomination. Especially in the grim Howard Dean-dominated days of November and December, they often struggled to get their fundraising calls returned.

No more. Now Democratic donors are mobilizing behind their all-but-official nominee. The unity of deep-pocketed Democrats should be evident as Kerry on Sunday started a three-day-Florida swing expected to pull in more than $3-million for the Kerry campaign and national party.

Amid the hundreds of Floridians writing $1,000 and $2,000 checks will be a core group of top Kerry fundraisers. They are 11 people - including a longtime Republican, a couple of registered independents and several people new to big money politics - who managed to raise at least $50,000 for the Massachusetts senator in a state whose Democratic donors last year were largely locked down by Sen. Bob Graham's presidential campaign.

The Bush-Cheney campaign has its "Rangers" and "Pioneers," individuals who raise at least $200,000 and $100,000 respectively. Fifty-one come from Florida. Kerry has "Vice Chairs" and "Co-Chairs" who raised at least $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.

Bush has raised more than $180-million to take him through the summer. Kerry is hoping between January and the July Democratic Convention to raise at least $80-million, and he drew a Democratic record-setting $38-million in March alone.

As with most major Democratic candidates, many of Kerry's top Florida fundraisers are trial lawyers eager to thwart Republican efforts to restrict liability lawsuits.

Predictably, most come from South Florida, a deep well for Democratic fundraising. They include veteran Democratic fundraisers, including Miami lawyer Milton Ferrell, Kerry's Florida finance chairman, and Bob Farmer, a transplanted Massachusetts resident and veteran of several previous presidential campaigns who serves as Kerry's national treasurer.

But the list of Kerry's best Florida fundraisers also includes some surprising, new additions to the well-heeled clique of established Democratic bundlers of campaign donations.

Kerry succeeded in raising cash during last year's highly competitive Florida money chase in part because he tapped a network of newcomers to the process. Through February, he raised more than $1.3-million in Florida, despite competing against the extensive Florida networks of Graham (who raised $2.8-million before dropping out of the race last fall); Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (who raised $1.05-million); and trial lawyer and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards (who raised $1.02-million).

"Sometimes the people who do it for the first time are the most successful. They never learn to accept "No' as an answer," said Farmer, a former publisher who moved to Bal Harbour about five years ago.

Rodney Margol is the most successful fundraiser most Florida politicos never heard of. The Jacksonville lawyer has raised more than $300,000 for Kerry and recently moved temporarily to Washington to serve as co-vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

"I'd never done this before, so it was just a matter of getting on the phone and calling, and calling and calling," said Margol, 53. He takes inspiration from a line in Primary Colors, the political novel by Joe Klein: "History is made by the first-timers."

Margol is a lifelong registered independent who has occasionally donated to Republicans, including former Sen. Connie Mack and former Rep. Tillie Fowler of Jacksonville. But he has always voted for Democratic presidents, and his connection with Kerry was personal.

Back in 1972, Margol organized student lectures at the University of Florida and invited the 27-year-old leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War to speak in Gainesville. Kerry, complaining about the 18-degree weather up north, wound up crashing in Margol's apartment for a couple of extra days.

The two talked a lot and Margol said he never forgot how smart, passionate and farsighted Kerry was. He followed his political career for three decades and jumped into the campaign when Kerry phoned him in December 2002.

Then there's Fernando Amandi, a 55-year-old Republican who voted for Bush in 2000 and had never been actively involved in politics. The former executive with Citibank and Motorola said he became fed up.

"I can no longer subscribe to a party that is not paying attention to things that are of concern to me," said the soft-spoken executive from Highland Beach in Palm Beach County. "It's the most counterproductive foreign policy I have ever witnessed."

A native of Cuba who came to America in 1960, Amandi said many Republican Cuban-Americans are becoming disenchanted with Bush because they see "a lot of rhetoric and very little action," not only in Cuba but across Latin America.

Miami investor Arthur Halleran is a registered independent who said he voted twice for Ronald Reagan and once for former President George Bush. He has known Kerry for 20 years and dismisses Republican efforts to tag him as a liberal tax-raiser.

"He is very probusiness. He understands incentives, and he understands small business," said Halleran, who spent most of his life in the Northeast but is mainly tapping his Florida contacts for Kerry.

In his early fundraising in Florida, Kerry also galvanized young professionals who previously had limited political involvement. At the center of that effort was Kirk Wagar, an energetic 34-year-old trial lawyer who hosted Kerry's first presidential fundraiser in December 2002. Wagar, a political junkie and onetime rugby player, has become a new fundraising star.

After Kerry clinched the nomination and effectively became leader of the national party, Wagar was named Florida finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee, just as Margol was tapped to move to Washington.

Among the newcomers Wagar introduced to Kerry was fellow Miami trial lawyer Jeremy Alters, 33. He had never raised much money for campaigns, but after meeting Kerry in person, he threw himself into the effort and raised more than $100,000.

Ironically, Wagar may not be able to vote for Kerry in November. He is a Canadian, eagerly hoping his application for citizenship gets approved in time.

"To be able to cast my first vote for John Kerry would be a dream come true," he said.

- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report. Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com

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