Cotton King: Roger Milliken (#215)

Roger Milliken: 80, Spartanburg, S.C. $73,000. Party: R

By Amy Burke

A lifelong Republican, Roger Milliken was a charter contributor to Newt Gingrich's GOPAC, giving the political action committee $255,000 from the mid-1980s to 1993. (His brother, Gerrish, donated an additional $90,000.) Milliken also gave $15,400 to Gingrich's campaign committee. According to John Nash, Milliken's Washington counsel, Milliken made the donations because he wanted "to build the Republican Party" and "make the Southern states Republican."

But Milliken also gave for practical reasons. As the head of Milliken & Co., a South Carolina-based textile giant, his primary goal was to obtain as much protection for his textiles as possible. Not surprisingly, he opposed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Although Gingrich ultimately backed his party's stand on GATT and NAFTA, he joined Milliken in urging Congress to establish quotas on textiles. (Gingrich also helped his sponsor by devoting 20 minutes of an Oct. 16, 1993 seminar, titled "Commitment to Quality," to Milliken & Co., and by showing an "educational" tape about the company during his televised college course.)

Not long after Congress approved NAFTA and GATT, however, Milliken began looking elsewhere for someone who'd support his views on trade. By 1993, according to a GOPAC spokesperson, he had stopped giving to GOPAC. (Nash denies a link, but acknowleges that "we've always been diappointed with the Republicans on this issue.")

In 1992, Milliken began funding Ross Perot, who shares his protectionist views. But in 1995, Milliken found an even more appealing politico: Pat Buchanan, who, Nash says, "is a traditional conservative like Mr. Milliken."