Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is coming back to Aspen on Aug. 14 and this time he is bringing his heavy hitters with him.
Some of the biggest fundraisers for McCain’s Republican presidential campaign will be here a week from Thursday for a reception, dinner and campaign briefing with the candidate, according to sources inside the campaign and the National Journal, a weekly political magazine.
They’ve been invited to Aspen by Fred Malek, the deputy national finance chairman for McCain’s campaign. Malek has a home in Aspen, is the founder and chairman of the private equity firm Thayer Capital Partners, and is a veteran Republican insider.
McCain apparently likes Aspen. He was just here on July 25, when he flew in for the afternoon to meet with the Dalai Lama. He also spoke last summer and in 2005 at the Aspen Institute.
On Aug. 14 McCain will again be speaking at the institute in a conversation with Walter Isaacson, the institute’s president and CEO. The event is at 3 p.m. in the Greenwald Pavilion tent.
Later that night, McCain is slated to be schmoozing at a remote mountain restaurant with his campaign’s “Trailblazers,” who have raised over $100,000, and with the campaign’s “Innovators,” who have raised over $250,000.
Included in those amounts are individual contributions of $2,300 and donations to fundraising committees, which can go up to $28,500.
On Friday, Aug. 15, the fundraisers are expected to go for a short hike with naturalists at the Maroon Bells, although it is not clear if McCain will be joining them.
In all, counting spouses and significant others, about 140 McCain fundraisers are expected to be at the event.
The list of McCain’s “Trailblazers” and “Innovators” includes Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a senior McCain adviser; August A. Busch III of the Anheuser Busch Co.; Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx; and Ted Forstmann of Forstmann, Little & Co., which frequently holds conferences in Aspen.
Also included on the fundraisers list are Las Vegas moguls Stephen Wynn, CEO of Mirage Resorts Inc., and Sheldon Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Politicians on the list include Utah Governor Jon Hunstman, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), and former Sens. Alfonse D’Amato and Phil Gramm.
While it is not clear if those fundraisers in particular will be in town, it may still be one of the largest gatherings of influential Republicans to ever gather in Aspen, which usually votes Democratic. For example, in 2004, President Bush received 2,750 votes in Pitkin County and Sen. John Kerry received 6,275 votes.
Recently a leading Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, said Aspen was home to “wealthy elites and environmentalists” who were part of the “anti-oil crowd.”
And it seems to have gone unnoticed by political pundits that the day after McCain warmly embraced the Dalai Lama in Aspen, the Tibetan monk told an Aspen crowd that he was a Marxist and “attracted to the Marxist sense of lifting the lower classes.”
Several of McCain’s top campaign aides — Charlie Black, Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt — are also expected to come to Aspen.
Malek, 71, was described in April by the Washington Post as “one of Washington’s ultimate insiders.” In addition to fundraising for McCain, he also has taken up writing a blog.
“Rick Davis is the man who engineered one of the greatest political comebacks in recent U.S. history, operating with minimal funding, and helping John McCain capture the nomination after the media and many people had written him off last summer and fall,” Malek wrote on July 8. “Rick remains as the Campaign CEO, with more time to focus on large emerging challenges such as the Republican Convention and selection of a running mate. In addition, we now have in Steve Schmidt, a chief operating officer who has earned enormous and well deserved respect for his political, strategic and operational accomplishments.”
Malek’s political experience includes serving as a special assistant to President Nixon, advising President Reagan as a member of several committees, and managing the 1988 Republican convention where George H. W. Bush was nominated.
Malek once carried out an order from President Nixon to count the number of Jews working at a federal agency because Nixon feared they were not loyal to him. Malek has said he regrets his actions and later sought the counsel of Jewish leaders over the incident.
bgs@aspendailynews.com