Roland Arnall, major state political donor and Ameriquest founder, dies
Roland Arnall, a Holocaust survivor who became one of President Bush’s biggest benefactors and the administration’s ambassador to the Netherlands, has died of cancer. He was 68.
Arnall was a co-founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and owned home mortgage lender Ameriquest Capital Corp.
He and his wife, Dawn, had been major donors to California Democrats including Gov. Gray Davis and Jerry Brown when the California attorney general was governor.
In later years, according to campaign financial numbers reported by The Times' Dan Morain, the Arnalls became major donors to Republicans. Since 2004, Roland and Dawn Arnall have given $5.5 million in federal campaign donations primarily to Republican candidates and organizations, and $1 million to Bush's 2005 inaugural.
The Los Angeles billionaire and his wife also were major California political donors, giving at least $11.5 million to state candidates and campaigns. They gave $1.4 million to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his campaign committees, and $130,000 to Davis, plus another $100,000 to oppose Davis’ recall.
Late this afternoon Schwarzenegger issued a statement that said, in part, "Maria and I send our prayers to Ambassador Arnall’s family, and we pledge to do our part in making sure his important work promoting tolerance around the world continues on.”
Arnall resigned as ambassador to the Netherlands, effective March 7.
The company Arnall founded, Ameriquest, has regularly been among the largest political donors in the state. Based in Orange, it has been the target of lawsuits filed by consumers in California and at least 20 other states alleging a pattern of fraud, falsification of documents, bait-and-switch sales tactics and other violations.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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