The Party of Fiscal Responsibility and Smaller Government...

Some Big Conservative Donors, Unhappy With Bush, Say They Won't Back His Campaign

Some major donors to the Club for Growth, a principal fund-raising engine of the conservative movement, have said they plan to sit out this year's presidential election to protest what they see as the administration's big-government tendencies.

At a dinner in Manhattan on Tuesday for about 20 prominent members of the club, President Bush's credentials as a limited-government conservative became the subject of heated debate. Many of those present criticized the president's Medicare plan as too expensive and his erstwhile support for steel tariffs as inefficient, several participants said. Many also complained that Mr. Bush had betrayed their cause by providing pivotal support for Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a moderate Republican, in a primary challenge by Representative Pat Toomey, a conservative supported by the club, participants said.