The Associated Press State & Local Wire
April 27, 2000, Thursday, AM cycle
 
HEADLINE: Granny D kicked out of Bush fundraiser

BYLINE: By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer

BODY:
 Granny D, the New Hampshire grandmother who walked across the country to promote campaign finance reform, was not allowed to walk into George W. Bush's record
fund-raiser this week in Washington.

Instead, a campaign aide promised Doris Haddock to give Bush a letter.

"In my letter, I said this was the first time we were both in the same city together, and it was an
opportunity to meet me face-to-face so he could understand where I was and I could understand where he was," she said in a telephone interview from the road Thursday.

Bush raised a record $21.5 million at Wednesday night's black-tie event. Haddock, 90, of Dublin,  has been trying to get big money out of politics. She called the amount Bush raised obscene.
She had an evening gown sent down from New Hampshire and bought new shoes for the Bush event, so she wouldn't look out of place.

"I really made a great effort in order to appear in the right clothes," she said. "It's not something I
carry with me, I can tell you."  But she was left on the outside, looking in.

"It was fun though, standing outside watching all the beautiful women come in," she said. "It was like going to an Oscar ceremony in Hollywood."

Her companion, John Anthony, said Bush campaign people told him and Haddock they could not get in without $1,500 each, "and if you stay here, you are a security threat."  He said they left when security people told them they would be forcibly removed if they didn't leave on their own.

The Bush campaign had no immediate comment Thursday.  Haddock said she thought the Bush people were "rather foolish," especially after Bush ridiculed Democrat Al Gore for refusing to see her at a fund-raiser in August.

Haddock said candidates and their contributors are caught in a system that must be changed.

"I'm not out to bash corporations," she said. "They too are not too happy with the situation, they are being held up for a great deal of money by the candidates. They can't help but do it."

Haddock appeared Thursday in Hartford, Ct., to push her message.