Donor Scorecard: Beth Dozoretz

By Ken Silverstein

One reason Hillary Clinton was able to raise so much money during the first quarter of this year—roughly $26 million—was that her presidential campaign has enlisted the help of dozens of "bundlers," a term for people who bring in $100,000 or more to a candidate’s war chest.

One of Clinton’s most prolific bundlers is Beth Dozoretz, whose husband Ron Dozoretz (estimated net worth: $250 million) is the founder of FHC Health Systems, a managed care company. Over the past decade, the couple has contributed more than $1 million to political candidates. Beth is a devoted Democrat while Ron, as a matter of sound business principles, has given heavily to both parties.

Beth Dozoretz became politically active after her husband took her to the 1992 Democratic National Convention, where she appears to have undergone a religious experience while watching Hillary speak. Their eyes locked “for an instant,” she later recalled. “There was a connection there.” She was equally impressed by Bill’s speech, saying, “I'm an extremely spiritual person. I think there are no accidents in life.”

A friendship quickly blossomed, and soon the Dozoretzs and Clintons were spotted on golfing greens, at Camp David, and traipsing around Martha’s Vineyard. Dozoretz later named Bill Clinton her daughter’s godfather, and Time magazine reported that a party she threw for the nipper “drew an array of Hollywood and political pals, plus a rabbi, a nun, and a swami.”

In 1994, Dozoretz became head of the Democratic National Committee’s Major Donor Program and she was named Vice-Chair for both the 1996 Clinton-Gore Campaign and the Presidential Inaugural Committee. After Clinton was impeached, Dozoretz took over as Finance Chair of the DNC. “Now the fund raisers at her [Georgetown] home are so frequent that angry neighbors block off their curbs to frustrate those using her valet parking,” Time reported in its 1999 story.

Dozoretz’s talent for raising political dough drew some unwanted attention in January of 2001, when President Clinton issued a last-minute pardon to fugitive financier Marc Rich, who fled to Switzerland in the early-1980s after being convicted of evading some $48 million in taxes and charged with conducting illegal oil deals with Iran during the hostage crisis.

Beth Dozoretz was a close friend of Marc’s wife Denise Rich, who had donated heavily to the Democrats during the Clinton years, including a $450,000 contribution to the presidential library foundation that Dozoretz had solicited. Dozoretz spoke with President Clinton about the possibility of pardoning Rich and reportedly called to thank him after he did so. This prompted a few annoying cynics to suggest that there might have been some connection between Denise Rich’s political contributions and her husband’s pardon. Buying influence? How, one wonders, do people come up with such ideas?

This story was prepared with the help of Alexander Provan.