YAGER PUTS MONEY BEHIND HIS POLITICS

Politics has become as much a part of Dexter Yager's Amway inventory as soap, cosmetics and motivational tapes.

He and his organization back their beliefs with money.

* Yager family members, employees and distributors gave Charlotte Republican Sue Myrick at least $200,000 for her 1994 U.S. House campaign, Yager's son Doyle acknowledges.

He says they contributed the same to the Republican who challenged Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and lesser amounts to others.

* Yager and his family gave a handful of 1994 GOP candidates $99,000.

* Yager Enterprises paid George Bush $100,000 for a 1993 speech and has also paid Ronald Reagan and Dan Quayle to speak.

``If you believe in free enterprise, you want somebody that's gonna vote on free enterprise,'' says Yager, 55. ``The more that the government does for everybody the more we become a slave to the government.''

His politics mirrors that of Amway Corp., which gave $2.5 million to the Republican National Committee last fall - the largest contribution ever to a political party.

Company co-founders Richard DeVos and Jay Van Andel - each among America's seven wealthiest people with net worths of $4.5 billion - have been big donors to Republican candidates and the party. DeVos is a former national GOP finance chairman.

For Yager, who has 1 million ``downline'' distributors, political clout goes beyond contributions. He also exposes candidates such as Myrick to large rallies, and relays political messages to distributors through his network's extensive voice-mail system.

It all illustrates Yager's growing yet often unseen influence.

Not only is he one of Amway's top distributors, but he's quietly become one of Mecklenburg County's largest property owners and a key Myrick supporter.

An Observer analysis shows that at least $177,000 - about a third of all the money she raised in last year's campaign - came from Yager family members, employees, or people identifying their business as ``marketing,'' a standard term Amway distributors use to describe their business.

Only $42,000 came from North Carolina. And of that, $32,000 came from the Yager family or employees.

Another $28,000 came in small, mainly out-of-state contributions. Many were $10 donations from the sale of a patriotic music tape manufactured and sold to the campaign by a Yager-owned company.

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Money bundled' for impact

John Green, a University of Akron expert on campaign financing, calls Amway distributors ``a potentially powerful new source of money.''

``Most money historically is raised through social networks of one kind or another,'' he says. ``What you're really seeing here is that we're bringing a new group of people with various kinds of traditional values into the mainstream of the political process.''

Critics say the donations represent a form of ``bundling'' contributions that give undue influence to those who raise it.

``Bundling'' is when people representing a single interest give separate contributions not easily traceable to the donor's interest.

Special interests, of course, give to both parties, directly through political action committees or indirectly by raising money or encouraging employees to give.

``What we see there is a real good example of what's really wrong with our campaign finance system, and that's that we have people out there raising huge amounts of money for candidates and . . . relatively few ways of tracking that down,'' says Josh Goldstein of the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, a group that studies campaign money.

``People who have access to a network of donors such as (Myrick) are able to get elected, while most citizens . . . don't have access.''

Myrick disputes the notion that Amway distributors represent a single interest.

``The only thing they have in common is they own their own small business,'' she says. ``Anyone who has their own business is interested in free enterprise. It's encouraging free enterprise and taking care of your own business.''

Myrick says no one, including Yager, holds sway over her.

``Nobody has ever asked for anything,'' she says. ``Upfront I've always told everyone, You don't own me,' You don't buy my vote.' ``

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An introduction in 1987

Myrick's Amway connection goes back to 1987.

She met Yager during her first successful campaign for mayor of Charlotte. He then introduced her to distributors from around the country. When she ran for the U.S. Senate in 1992, they contributed to her campaign. She lost a primary to U.S. Sen. Lauch Faircloth, but she and her husband soon joined Yager's organization as distributors.

``He's a very honorable man who has helped a tremendous number of people get their life together,'' Myrick says of Yager. ``That's what attracted me to Amway, the good salt-of-the-earth people.''

Last year the Yagers rallied around her again.

Doyle Yager, who runs his father's Amway business, says she spoke or had a booth at more than 10 rallies across the country before the 1994 primary.

She sold distributors a $10 tape called ``We the People'' made by Intercontinental Communication Corp. of America, a Yager company that produces motivational tapes at its South Boulevard plant. She also made valuable contacts.

In April she met top distributors at the Charlotte Coliseum. Among them was Gerald Harteis of Pennsylvania.

``Although we're not in her geographic district, we're very much in her mental district,'' says Harteis, 48, who with his family gave Myrick $3,000.

Harvey Nash, 60, an Amway ``Diamond'' level distributor from Fishers, Ind., heard Myrick speak at two or three events and liked her ``because she's a free enterpriser.'' He says Yager didn't push the contribution.

``What he did was let her present her program and it was up to the individual,'' said Nash, who contributed $1,000 last April.

Ann Reynolds, a distributor from Watkinsville, Ga., heard Myrick speak at five or six Amway-related events. She and her husband gave $250 in March 1994 because ``Sue's just definitely a first-class person. . . .

``We didn't care what state she was from. We wanted people who believed what we did in Congress.''

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Secretary donates $1,000

Tammy Nyhoff, an 18-year-old secretary for Amway distributors in Ogden, Utah, gave $1,000. Was it hard to do that financially?

``Well, sort of,'' Nyhoff says. `` . . . We all got together and helped her.''

Much of Myrick's Amway money came when she needed it most, in the crucial weeks before her hotly contested May primary.

``It played a big role,'' says Charlotte Republican Don Reid, who lost to Myrick in the five-way primary. ``She had an opportunity to use that money for radio (and) TV. And she did a lot of both.''

Myrick wasn't the only candidate to benefit from Yager's generosity.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney, who lost to Kennedy in Massachusetts, got $12,000 from the Yager family and at least $34,000 more from Myrick contributors with Yager connections. Doyle Yager puts the total figure at closer to $200,000.

The Yager family helped a half-dozen other federal candidates last year. Among them were Republican Senate winners Spencer Abraham in Michigan and Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania.

Another was Ralph Hudgens, a Georgia Republican who lost a House bid. He got $17,000 from the Yagers. When he'd run in 1992, Hudgens says he was among those targeted by a group called U.S. Congressional Consultants. It included Yager and Amway President Rich DeVos.

``They identified 10 pro-family, pro-business, pro-free enterprise candidates across the U.S. that they wanted to support,'' Hudgens says. ``And I was one.''

Yager says the group recognized that ``any senator or congressman that represents our beliefs is the one we want to support. It's not a matter of always the one in our area.''

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Support via voice mail

Yager introduced Myrick to Amway audiences at rallies. He also plugged favored candidates through the Amway voice mail system called Amvox. About 400,000 U.S. distributors are hooked up to the network, which top distributors use to relay short messages to thousands at a time.

Henry Gilewicz of Lake Wylie, whom Yager sponsored into Amway 22 years ago, gets messages from Yager and other top-level distributors. He says he forwards them to his own network whenever they're ``significant to our country.''

But several former distributors say they didn't appreciate the political content of some of Yager's Amvox messages.

Roger Maynard, 39, of Dallas, Tex., says Yager has asked him to support initiatives or politicians because ``they were good for God and country.''

``It was Dexter in his limousine saying, Let's pray about this right now.'

Amway's top leaders, he says, ``spout their religion and politics very freely. At the big rallies, it comes out very blatantly. I just didn't want to hear it.''

Olene Reaves, 61, of Houston recalls many Amvox messages from Yager before becoming inactive in Amway in 1993. Most came from places such as Hawaii and ``talked about the good life and how you can have it too.'' But some, she said, specifically asked for support of a politician or an initiative.

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There's no gray with Dexter'

Another voice on Amvox belongs to Bob McEwen, a former member of Congress from Ohio. His ``Bits from Bob,'' like his speeches at rallies or his regular column in the Yagers' ``Dreambuilders'' magazine, offer conservative opinions on national issues.

Recently, for example, he urged readers to ``oppose vigorously those politicians who promise us more government help . . . like free health care.''

McEwen calls Yager ``basically a person committed to America, very patriotic (with) a set of biblical, moral principles that are just rock solid. There's no gray with Dexter. He will not compromise on principle.''

So what do Yager and Amway get for their money?

``Unfortunately the way the game works here in Washington is . . . campaign contributors get access while most people or ordinary citizens are left on the sidelines,'' says Goldstein of the Center for Responsive Politics.

Tom Eggleston, Amway Corp.'s chief operating officer, says the company does not demand allegiance to the views of its leaders.

``We guard against any implication that certain views are required for success in the Amway business,'' he says. `` . . . Individual distributors are free to express their own viewpoints.''

Amway's legislative interests cover a variety of issues, such as the role of independent contractors. With Amway expanding its worldwide markets - the company moves into China next month - trade issues also are important. Amway was fined $20 million in 1982 in a dispute with the Canadian government over import duties.

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Voice of the Electorate'

Before her election to Congress, Sue Myrick's Amway ties extended beyond contributions.

A major distributor in Yager's organization paid her $10,000 in 1993 and early 1994 for contractual work on a short-lived project called ``Voice of the Electorate.'' Ed, her husband, received an undisclosed sum.

The program was designed to keep distributors aware of national issues and encourage them to voice their opinion through Amvox.

``It was not something that a great deal of effort was put into,'' says Ed Myrick.

The Myricks were paid by their Amway sponsor, Billy Florence of Georgia. He serves with Yager on the executive committee of the Amway Distributors Association.

``It was not a big operation,'' says Florence. ``. . . We really haven't used it much.''

While Sue Myrick is busy in Congress, her husband continues to build their Amway network.

``Amway is to a great extent telephone,'' Ed Myrick says. ``We're in constant touch with each other, plus the fact there are hundreds of people up there (in Washington). There are prospects everywhere.''