Washington (Aug. 5, 2004) — Some 204 executives, including former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Arthur Levitt Jr., Bank of America chairman Charles Gifford, and Oracle Corp. president Charles Phillips, have thrown their support behind Democratic presidential challenger Sen. John Kerry.
However, Kerry still trails incumbent George W. Bush, who has had 280 of the nation’s top business chiefs whose companies are in the Russell 1000 index contributing to his re-election bid, according to the non-partisan group PoliticalMoneyLine.
At press time, reports indicated that several of those top execs— Owsley Brown, chief executive of Brown-Forman Corp.; Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of News Corp.; Penny Pritzker, president of Pritzker Realty Group; and Phillips — were scheduled to join Kerry in Davenport, Iowa, Aug. 4 in what was categorized as a quasi “economic summit.”
Through June 30, Kerry has received some $184.1 million in contributions, while President Bush’s re-election campaign has garnered $232.1 million.
— WebCPA staff
