Lame Duck Walking: Rudy, McCain Grappling for Bush Donors ("Pioneers" & "Rangers" picking sides)

[Human Torch]

Rudy, McCain Grappling for Bush Donors
Our Beloved Ex-Mayor Now Officially Exploratory, Chest-Bumps Peppy War-Hero Senator for G.O.P. Bucks; Giuliani Grabs Pickens, McCain Grabs Right
By Jason Horowitz

http://www.observer.com/20061127/20061127_Jason_Horowitz_pageone_newsstory1.asp



Rudy Giuliani and John McCain have a lot in common.

They both have a direct personal style. They both advocate a muscular foreign policy. And now, they’re both in competition for George W. Bush’s vast network of political donors.

As the midterm elections have left the field without a clear champion of the party’s conservative wing, the two erstwhile allies are left in a class by themselves as they court the same small but powerful constituency of fund-raisers that fueled the last three successful Republican Presidential campaigns. The rivalry marks a new, openly hostile stage in the nascent Presidential race, with Mr. Bush’s top bundlers, the “Pioneers” and “Rangers” of 2000 and 2004, picking sides and launching essentially the first attacks of the campaigns.

“Bush in 2000 created an aura of inevitability early,” said Patrick Oxford, a major fund-raiser for President Bush and Mr. Giuliani’s colleague at the Texas-based law firm Bracewell & Giuliani. “After all this time and effort, after this army of givers they say they have, McCain has damn sure not created that aura of inevitability.”