Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 29, 1990                   TAG: 9007290169
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

PRESIDENT'S SON WORKING FOR STATE GOP

At party leaders' urging, the younger Bush recently became the state GOP's finance chairman. He said Saturday he will try to get Republican loyalists to give the party $2,000 a year.

"The Republican Party of Virginia is really at a crossroads. We're gaining ground on the Democrats," Bush said at a GOP State Central Committee meeting.

Bush, 33, of Alexandria, said donors have been reluctant to contribute to the GOP because it hasn't held any of the state's top three elected offices for nine years.

"People tend to flock toward success," he told reporters. "Major donors can be somewhat finicky."

He said he hopes to lure back some of those corporate and individual donors as well as bring new contributors to the party.

"There's a ton of young talent out there who are essentially conservative who are not involved in the process," he said.

Bush said Republicans who give $2,000 a year or find five other individuals or corporations to give that amount will be invited to the White House for a briefing by top Bush administration officials.

But Bush said even he couldn't guarantee that his father would attend.

"My dad may or may not participate," he said. "I can't promise that."

Bush will be helped by another young Republican with administration connections. A. Scott Andrews, the finance vice chairman, is the son-in-law of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp.

Several of the five Bush children have gotten involved in politics on their own, but Marvin Bush said until now his participation has been limited to helping in his father's campaigns.

He said his father called his acceptance of the volunteer job as finance chairman "fantastic."

The younger Bush said he has no immediate plans to run for office himself.

Bush said his children are too young for him to seek office soon. He and his wife, Margaret, have a daughter, 4, and a son, 7 months. Bush graduated from the University of Virginia and is a partner in an investment firm.

Steve Haner, director of the state Republican legislative caucus, called the appointment of President Bush's youngest son as state finance chairman "a great coup for the party."