Heinz Prechter's ties to the White House date back to 1979, when he worked on the campaign of George Bush Sr. "I really got to know him better when he was vice president," Prechter recalls. "I had him at my house; I had ongoing communications with him. I don't think he relied on me, but I think I had a dialogue with him."

That "dialogue" has produced plenty of high-level access for Prechter. In 1988, after raising $1 million for Bush's presidential campaign, he sent the candidate a five-page letter outlining a plan to increase exports of manufactured goods. Bush returned the favor by appointing Prechter chairman of the President's Export Council. In 1992, Prechter wrote Bush to suggest "that you regularly consider including representatives from U.S. firms when you and other high-level U.S. government officials travel abroad." Five months later, Prechter accompanied Bush on a trade mission to Japan. During the trip, Prechter made a deal granting his company, ASC, the rights to put sunroofs on Hondas.

Prechter has continued his efforts on behalf of the younger Bush, raising money, traveling with the candidate, inviting a select group of Republican donors to go bird hunting with Bush at his Texas ranch, and running an Election Day op-ed article in his newspapers urging voters to back the Republican ticket. One story from the campaign trail reported that Prechter even lobbied a party donor at a men's room urinal. The GOP honored Prechter for founding a group called American Dreamers for George W. Bush, which urged minorities to became involved in Republican politics and give money to the Bush campaign. ''I appreciate what Heinz has done," Bush told reporters. "His is a great American story, the story of an entrepreneur.''

Prechter came to the United States as a 21-year-old German exchange student and studied business administration at San Francisco State Unversity. He soon noticed that American cars did not have sunroofs -- so he began cutting holes in cars and fitting them with removable windows. In 1965, he launched what later became the American Sunroof Company in Los Angeles, eventually moving his operations to Detroit. Prechter Holdings, the parent firm of ASC, includes the Heritage Media Group and its chain of 16 suburban newspapers, as well as companies with interests in real estate, an inn and restaurant, cattle ranching, and investments.

Prechter claims not to want anything in return for his political largesse. "The last thing I want to do is ask a politician a favor," he said. ''I won't accept an ambassadorship. I don't even want an offer.''' But his connections and contributions have raised speculation that he could be tapped as ambassador to his native Germany.