Dishing Up A Full Plate To Democrats -- Laurie Mcdonald Jonsson Leads The Party's Donors From This State, And Tomorrow She'll Serve Dinner For Them - And President Clinton

As a businesswoman, Laurie McDonald Jonsson has built, run and sold a cruise-ship company, made a bundle in real estate and launched a luxury-travel service she oversees from her ornate corner office in downtown Seattle.

She has three children at home, all in elementary school, and spends at least an hour a day training for the Ironman triathlon she plans to do in a year or two.

At 48, Jonsson can add another accomplishment to her list: She has joined the ranks of the state's biggest political contributors, having given or pledged nearly $400,000 to the Democratic Party during the past two years.

And tomorrow night, President Clinton and about 100 of the region's most influential people will be eating fire-roasted salmon at her waterfront home in Medina.

The $5,000-a-plate fund-raiser is expected to generate nearly $500,000 for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and the state Democratic Party. Clinton, who is stopping in the area on his way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vancouver, B.C., will later headline a $250-a-head event at Seattle Center.

So fast has been Jonsson's climb up the ranks of political influence that it has left some in the state political community dumbfounded.

"Nobody had heard of her, then suddenly - boom - she's one of the biggest donors in the state," said Jeffrey Coopersmith, a Democrat who ran for Congress last year and lost to Rep. Rick White, R-Bainbridge Island. "It's very thin oxygen at that level of giving."

Second to Thomas Stewart

Invisible on the political scene until she gave $141,000 to the national Democratic Party last year, Jonsson suddenly found herself the No. 2 political contributor in the state, behind only food-services magnate Thomas Stewart, who gives to Republicans.

Earlier this year, she attended a Washington, D.C., dinner hosted by Clinton and Vice President Al Gore at which 40 of the Democrats' top donors nationally agreed to give or raise $250,000 each to help retire the party's $16 million debt.

And at a time when scandal has tainted big-money politics, Jonsson remains unapologetic.

She says she entered the world of politics with her checkbook open not to curry favors for her businesses, but because she is passionate that the Democrats are the best hope for helping women and children.

"That is what really steered me into politics," she said. "I saw President Clinton was appointing women to positions of power, and women were changing the political dialogue in this country."

Her goal now is to get even more women involved in the process. Her money has given her the kind of access she needs to try.

Although interested in women's issues for much of her life, Jonsson's political awakening happened just two years ago, when she helped to organize a meeting of female presidents and prime ministers in Stockholm.

Jonsson's political donations began in June 1996 with a $1,000 contribution to a friend, U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Bellevue.

Shortly thereafter, she bucked her family's conservative political background and began directing a good chunk of her fortune to Democrats.

Since then, Jonsson has become a member of Gov. Gary Locke's Executive Women's Council, an advisory group, and a regular at Washington, D.C., round tables with Tipper Gore and Hillary Clinton.

Jonsson is also trying to organize the first all-women trade mission overseas.

Focused on Murray's campaign

For now, however, most of her attention is on getting Murray, her friend and political role model, re-elected.

Murray, so far, is the only Democrat in next year's Senate race. Two Republicans have announced plans to run against her: U.S. Rep. Linda Smith of Hazel Dell, Clark County, and Pierce County Executive Doug Sutherland.

"I don't just jump up and write someone a check," Jonsson said.

"I watched Senator Murray. I saw her support women and children and said this is someone I want to get involved with."

On the walls of Jonsson's office on the 22nd floor of the Pike Tower are recent pictures of the president and first lady posing with her family, reminders of how politically connected she has become in a short time.

Jonsson may be new to the political scene, but she is part of an Eastside family that in the past three decades has built a business empire ranging from travel and real-estate investment to food services and high-speed Internet communications.

She grew up in Medina and graduated from Bellevue High School and the University of Washington. She also has graduate degrees in social work from the University of Michigan and in business from Stanford.

Fortune built on cruise ships

She is the daughter of Stanley McDonald, who founded Princess Cruises in the mid-1960s, the "Love Boat" company that helped create the U.S. cruise-ship industry.

Taking her cue from him, Jonsson emerged as a business power in the mid-1980s, launching Seattle's Sundance Cruises, which later merged with Miami's Admiralty Cruises.

It was while negotiating the purchase and renovation of a European ferry that she met her husband, Lars Jonsson, who is Swedish.

She sold the firm in 1986, and formed Stellar Travel, which specializes in booking luxury cruises as well as handling travel arrangements for small corporations.

Along with her brother, Kirby McDonald, her father and her husband, Jonsson is one of the principals in the real-estate-investment firm Stellar International Holdings. The company recently paid $4.85 million for Seattle's Metropolitan Federal Savings Building on Westlake Park.

Kirby McDonald, who lives in Hunts Point, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Universal Ogden Services, a company specializing in food services and housekeeping for companies with remote, overseas locations.

Three years ago, Stanley McDonald bought an ailing high-tech company and reworked it into Stellar One, a Bellevue-based provider of software and hardware for high-speed Internet communication.

`It's based on pure support'

Jonsson bristles at the notion that she might use her money to lobby for a specific legislative agenda.

Other politically active people say they've never heard Jonsson mention her business concerns, nor have they heard of her lobbying Congress or attempting to get special treatment from the White House.

"It doesn't seem to be about lobbying or a specific business issue with her," said Ken Alhadeff, a Seattle businessman who last year traveled with Jonsson on a bus trip through Washington and Oregon with Clinton. "I'd have to say that it's based on pure support for the president and the party and an agenda for social change."

Big-money donors are rare in Washington state. In the last congressional-election cycle, covering the period from Jan. 1, 1995, through Dec. 31, 1996, only four individuals in the state donated more than $100,000 to local and national campaigns or parties: Stewart, Jonsson, Alhadeff, and George St. Laurent, a Vancouver, Wash., bank CEO.

But Jonsson says she isn't much interested in the numbers. Money, she says, is just a way of supporting the people she admires.

"Hillary Clinton had a big impact on me," she said. "To see what she is doing made me want to stand up. Then there was Madeleine Albright and Janet Reno. Their beliefs were so much like mine, I really wanted to get involved."

J. Martin McOmber's phone message number is 206-515-5628. His e-mail address is: mcom-new@seatimes.com

Danny Westneat's phone-message number is 206-464-2772. His e-mail address is: dwes-new@seatimes.com