Tech Investor Has Ad Blitz Dialed In

In several of the nation’s Latino enclaves, one of President Bush’s most formidable Democratic foes is a venture capitalist who speaks no Spanish, isn’t a Latino and lives in a wealthy Silicon Valley suburb.

Andrew S. Rappaport is the major financier behind a Spanish-language advertising blitz that has been pounding Bush and promoting Democrats since early March in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida.

The 46-year-old technology investor has donated $600,000 for the TV and radio campaign being waged by the Washington-based New Democrat Network. He and his wife, Deborah, have pledged an additional $500,000.

The New Democrat Network and other groups that operate independently of political parties won a victory Thursday when the Federal Election Commission declined to impose fundraising limits on them. That means the Rappaports and others can keep writing big checks to the groups, many of which are known as 527s for the tax code section that governs them.

In an interview Thursday, Rappaport said he was almost entirely ignorant of Latino culture before he agreed to make his political investment.

“At the time we got involved in this, the only thing we knew about Spanish-language television was that Spanish-speaking people watched it,” he said.

But he was sold on the project when New Democrat Network leaders came to his house in Woodside last fall and showed him some telling numbers. As many as one out of 11 voters in November’s election would be Latino. And the Democratic Party had spent little money trying to reach that market through Spanish-language radio stations and TV networks.

The New Democrat Network officials asked Rappaport for $100,000 to test some ads in December. He agreed. He then committed an additional $1 million, part of an overall $5-million campaign, when the ads were a success.

In Spanish-language media, he saw a political growth market. “This is a constituency that we really do need to address in a more effective way than we have,” Rappaport said.

The New Democrat Network, like other 527s, operates separately from John F. Kerry’s presidential campaign. Republicans have alleged that the pro-Democratic 527s are illegally coordinating their activities with the Kerry campaign. The Massachusetts senator’s aides and other Democrats deny the charge.

Rappaport scoffed at the notion that his contribution was part of an illegal scheme. He said Bush had simply united Democrats behind a many-headed cause.

“There is no doubt that the Democratic Party is working more in unison now than it ever has before,” Rappaport said. “As a lifelong Democrat, I wish the party were so organized that we could pull off a grand conspiracy.”

Rappaport and his wife have been politically and philanthropically involved in Silicon Valley for years. Deborah Rappaport sits on a school board, and the couple have given $1 million to the San Jose Museum of Art.

Rappaport said he was a supporter of Howard Dean’s presidential run and raised money for the former Vermont governor. He also gave to Sen. John Edwards in late February when the North Carolinian was still running against Kerry. But now he is four-square for Kerry.

Rappaport said this year’s political donations are his largest ever. “It’s unusual for us to even talk about it publicly,” he added. “It has been an unusual year.”