Higher Number of Clinton Donor Coffees Seen

The Clintons and Gores met with campaign donors and political supporters over coffee at the White House more than 100 times in the 22 months before the November election--far more often than had been previously disclosed, according to newly obtained information.

The intimate gatherings, in which about a dozen guests generally spent an hour or so with the president, occurred as often as two or three times a week during the height of the campaign and helped bolster a full-tilt fund-raising effort.

“This is the way we put together the campaign structure,” a senior White House official said. “It was very successful, it was very personal.”

The coffees have become controversial because some of the guests brought in by major campaign donors clearly were inappropriate, including a Chinese arms dealer, and others were figures in the current scandal over foreign contributions. President Clinton, in headlining a record-setting Democratic fund-raising effort, also appears to have pushed the practice to new heights, prompting criticism that he used the White House as a campaign-donation mill.

“Donors have always gone into the White House, but what seems different in this case is a more systematic and more methodical harvesting of donors and using the White House and the vice president’s residence as drawing cards,” said Charles Lewis, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.

The count of coffees before the election is still not complete and the total could well go higher, sources said. More than 60 were sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, which previously had put its figure at “several dozen.”

In addition to the White House events, at least four others were hosted by Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, at the vice president’s official residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Presidents are permitted to have partisan political functions in the White House and have routinely done so. But the frequency of Clinton’s use of the executive mansion for that purpose--including hosting donors for overnight visits--appears to be without recent precedent.

C. Boyden Gray, who served as counsel to George Bush during Bush’s presidency and vice presidency, said such functions during his tenure were limited to an occasional cocktail party for donors. “The White House per se was not used for this purpose,” he said.

Clinton administration and Democratic Party officials emphasized that the coffees were not used only to court and thank campaign contributors. In addition to big party donors, guests also included community leaders, elected officials and business executives. They said the sponsoring party organization paid all expenses for the functions.

“There is nothing inappropriate or unprecedented about the president hosting various events in the White House,” said White House Special Counsel Lanny J. Davis. “Two facts remain uncontroverted: No solicitations for funds were made at these events and no policy or governmental action ever resulted from a campaign contribution.”

Davis noted that Clinton has acknowledged that some of his friends “took unfair advantage of his hospitality” by bringing foreign associates to the coffees and that the president has told the White House counsel to improve screening to prevent a recurrence.

Guest lists obtained by The Times included some of the largest Democratic campaign donors, such as Dirk Ziff, a New York investment banker who contributed a total of $411,00, and Richard Machado, a physician from Puerto Rico who gave $250,000.

Also included was Pauline Kanchanalak, a Thai businesswoman who contributed a total of $253,000.

Kanchanalak’s attendance at a June 18 coffee has drawn particular attention because she brought three Thai business executives with extensive financial interests in China, a topic that was discussed. The White House has been unable to document that the executives were legally eligible to vote or to contribute to a U.S. election campaign.

The day after the coffee, Kanchanalak gave $85,000 to the Democratic National Committee and an associate gave $50,000. The DNC returned all of Kanchanalak’s donations in November after concluding that she had withheld the true source of the money.

All the coffees hosted by Clinton were in the Map Room, which was once used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to track the progress of World War II. Seated at a large conference table, Clinton opened the sessions with a brief account of his priorities for the country and then gave participants a chance to express their concerns or ask questions, attendees have said.

“It was a very tangible and effective way of demonstrating personally that the president was paying attention to people whose help he wanted and whose help he appreciated,” said former Democratic Rep. Mel Levine, a Los Angeles attorney who has worked with the administration on Middle East issues and raised money for Clinton’s reelection. “It’s a quite unique and very impressive opportunity to explore the issues you’re interested in.”

In addition to Clinton’s coffees, Gore did 14 such events and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton presided over three sessions.

A New York business executive who gave the Democrats $50,000 before attending a coffee last March and thousands of dollars more subsequently described it as a heady experience.

“It was a big deal to me,” he said. “I was very wide-eyed.”

But he expressed disappointment that there was not more follow-up.

“They took a picture of me shaking the president’s hand,” the coffee guest said. “And I never got it. It was why I was there.”

Erskine Bowles, the new White House chief of staff, told the Associated Press that access rules at the White House will be tightened. He said the DNC and the White House will probably announce the new rules, designed to monitor guest lists, on Tuesday.

Bowles also told the news service that the administration will launch an all-out effort to amend campaign-finance laws. “I can tell you we intend to expend a lot of political capital, a lot of time and energy and effort in trying to pass real campaign-finance reform,” Bowles said. “It’s not something we’re just going to just throw up there and act like we have an interest in. We are going to go out there and really fight for it.”

Times staff writer Glenn F. Bunting contributed to this story.