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Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006

Foreign aid wins friends

WASHINGTON - One of Sen. Mitch McConnell's "best friends and buddies" -- his words -- is Albert Boyajian, a rich Los Angeles bakery magnate who is a leader in the Armenian-American community.

What does a Kentucky Republican share with a West Coast ethnic leader?

Money.

Boyajian wants more U.S. aid for his home country in southwestern Asia. He founded the Armenian-American Political Action Committee to reward helpful politicians with campaign cash.

McConnell is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Foreign Operations. It meets once or twice a year and draws scant attention. But it controls more than $20 billion in annual foreign aid. And it brings McConnell hundreds of thousands of dollars from people hoping to influence that aid.

Boyajian said he personally educated the senator about Armenia, flying him there in 1996 for a tour and an interview with the president.

Their friendship has deepened as McConnell boosted U.S. aid to Armenia up to $90 million a year, or as much as $25 million more than the White House recommended, since the mid-1990s. He adds many millions more for specific Armenian projects.

"No one in the last decade has done more for Armenians and Armenia than Sen. McConnell," said Boyajian, 66, his voice still thickly accented after three decades in the United States.

Grateful, Boyajian said he hosts every Armenian-related fund-raiser held in California for "my good friend Mitch." (Armenian-Americans in the Golden State alone have given McConnell about $125,000.) He gives so much of his own money to Republicans, including McConnell -- about $50,000 since 1997 -- that he was awarded the Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom by the GOP fund-raising machine McConnell chaired for four years.

Some conservatives dislike the idea of foreign aid and all those U.S. tax dollars flowing to other nations.

However, it's a blessing for McConnell, a senator from landlocked Kentucky, chiefly home to native-born Americans. Most of his ambitious fund-raising now occurs outside his state, often in major coastal cities where ethnic groups are far more politically active.

And he recognizes it. Speaking on the Senate floor 10 years ago, McConnell told colleagues: "We have a lot of Jewish-Americans who are interested in Israel, a lot of Armenian-Americans who are interested in Armenia and a lot of Ukraine-Americans who are interested in Ukraine."

"Boy, when we hear from them, we get real interested," he said.

Over the years, McConnell has rejected budget recommendations from Democratic and Republican presidents and State Departments in order to give hundreds of millions of dollars in additional aid to those three countries -- Israel, Armenia and Ukraine -- while their lobbying groups donated heavily to him.

McConnell inherited his role as Armenia's champion from Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., who credited an Armenian doctor for saving his life after he was wounded in World War II. Dole left the Senate to run for president in 1996 as McConnell settled in as chairman of the foreign aid panel.

That's how Yervant Demirjian, an Armenian-American banker, found himself chatting with McConnell, a Kentucky politician, in Southern California in 2004.

Boyajian, the bakery owner, organized an Armenian fund-raiser for McConnell at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina Del Rey, Calif., where the senator mingled with donors. Those who gave him the most were told they could accompany him on a chartered yacht cruise. McConnell pledged continued U.S. aid for Armenia at generous levels and collected about $35,000, federal election records indicate.

"If I can be candid, McConnell is a good friend of Armenia," said Demirjian, who gave $1,000.

"Because there are a lot of us living in California, he periodically comes out here and thanks us for our support of him," the businessman said. "And what do we get in exchange for that support? Nothing more than a stable supply of foreign aid."

'They like my views'

McConnell denied in a recent interview that campaign donations influence his foreign-aid decisions. He said his career reflects an interest in promoting freedom and opportunity abroad, from opposing apartheid in South Africa to pushing for stronger Western relationships with former Soviet states after the Cold War.