Legacy

Legacy is a "political group" of "affluent Evangelicals" that is "one of the most eagerly courted, screening committees for the next G.O.P. presidential nominee," Mike Allen wrote in TIME on August 7, 2006.

Legacy was co-founded by Dallas, Texas businessmen George Seay III, founder of the Seay Stewardship & Investment Co., grandson of former Texas Governor Bill Clements, and Legacy's chairman, and Ray W. Washburne, a "real estate and Tex-Mex-restaurant baron". Since 1990, Washburne has been the Chairman and CEO of Charter Holdings, where George Prescott Bush, the eldest son of Florida governor Jeb Bush, nephew of President George W. Bush, and grandson of former President George H.W. Bush, has been a vice president since around mid-2006.

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About the founders

Expanding on Mike Allen's TIME article, Alan Peppard wrote August 11, 2006, in the Dallas Morning News that the "Legacy founders are anything but shadowy figures in these parts. Ray Washburne is a successful real estate investor who, along with his brother Dick and friend Bob McNutt, gave Mico Rodriguez the initial capital to create Mi Cocina restaurants. The company and its sibling eateries have been minting money ever since. Ray's wife, Heather, is the granddaughter of Hunt Petroleum founder Margaret Hunt Hill. Back in June, all heads turned at the Preston Forest Mi Cocina when Ray walked in for dinner with likely presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani."

U.S. presidential election, 2008

By the time of Allen's article in August 2006, "all the marquee '08 Republican candidates [had] spoken to Legacy or met with its founders" since Legacy is regarded "as a prime audience in these early days of raising money and trying to conjure momentum," Allen wrote. "'If you're running for President,' said a close associate of President George W. Bush's, 'it is the place to go.' One of the group's first projects: supplying cash and ground troops to help South Dakota's John Thune beat Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle in 2004. Thune, a presidential prospect, electrified the Broadmoor audience, which also heard from Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn of Texas," Allen wrote.

Mitt Romney

As of September 6, 2007, three Legacy members were serving as co-chairs of Mitt Romney's National Faith and Values Steering Committee:

• George Seay III, Legacy Chairman, who also serves on Romney's Texas Finance team and is a bundler for Romney's campaign
• E. Peb Jackson of Colorado, Legacy Board Member
• Tom Vegh of California, Legacy Board Member; Former owner, Maranatha Music

Other candidates

In October 2006, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post's The Fix Blog reported that George Seay had "signed on as a supporter" of then presidential hopeful and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who left Congress in 2006. Also reporting on the Legacy-Frist connection was Ken Whitehouse of the Nashville Post who wrote that Seay's grandfather, former Texas Governor Bill Clements, was "reported to be raising money for John McCain's prospective 2008 White House bid."