WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers gave $1,000 to Democrat Al Gore's unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988—and 12 years later contributed to the effort to end Gore's chance of winning the White House. In 1988, Miers, then a lawyer in private practice, donated $1,000 to Gore, the Tennessee Democrat then seeking the party's presidential nomination, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Gore eventually bowed out and Michael Dukakis secured the nomination.
In 2000, Miers contributed to the campaign of Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who was running against Gore that year. When the votes were still being counted in Florida and the outcome was in doubt, she gave $5,000 to the Bush-Cheney Inc. Recount Fund, according to the non- partisan Political MoneyLine.
Through the years, Miers has contributed more than $10,000 to political candidates, focusing mainly on Texas Republicans such as Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Rep. Pete Sessions and former Sen. Phil Gramm.
Miers also gave $1,000 to another prominent Democrat—Lloyd Bentsen, the longtime Texas senator who in 1988 ran for re-election and also was Dukakis' vice presidential choice on the Democratic ticket that year.
Bentsen won another term in the Senate, but the Republican ticket of George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle defeated Dukakis and Bentsen.
Miers contributed $1,000 to the Democratic National Committee Services Corp. in 1988.
Miers gave some $5,000 to Bush's 2000 campaign and his 2004 re- election bid. She contributed $1,650 to the presidential inaugural committee that paid for some of the festivities surrounding Bush's swearing in to a second term.
