WASHINGTON– The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lounge in Fullerton.
But the man who gathered checks from them is no stranger to McCain.
Harry Sargeant III is the archetype of a modern presidential money man. The law no longer allows high-level supporters to write huge checks, but Sargeant has raised more than $100,000 for three presidential candidates.
After helping raise money for former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sargeant has emerged as a major player in Florida fundraising for McCain.
The 2008 presidential campaign has heightened the importance of “bundlers” such as Sargeant, who not only write checks but also recruit other donors to give the legal limit of $2,300. Questions about such donor networks have repeatedly emerged as points of stress for the campaigns.
In January, Norman Hsu, a top Clinton bundler, was indicted in part on charges of circumventing legal giving limits. This week, McCain drew questions about more than $60,000 in donations that were made to the Republican National Committee and his campaign by an office manager with Hess Oil Company and her husband, an Amtrak track foreman. In that case, the couple said they used their own money.
Sargeant and the donors were vague when asked to explain how Sargeant convinced them to give money.
His firm, International Oil Trading Co., holds several contracts with the Defense Department to carry fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq.
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