Gay Hart Gaines

Gay Hart Gaines is the vice chair for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She was appointed to the board by George W. Bush in December 2003 for a term ending in 2010. She was elected as vice chair in September 2005 along with CPB chair Cheryl Halpern.

She is a long-time Republican Party fundraiser. The Nation's David Corn writes that Gaines and her husband Stanley Gaines "have contributed at least half a million dollars to GOP causes since 1998." In 2004, she was a Bush Pioneer, bundling over $100,000 for Bush's reelection campaign. Other Republican Party involvement includes being a charter member of GOPAC, which she chaired from 1993-1997.

Gaines came to the CPB with no previous experience in broadcasting. Common Causes' Cynthia Wexler pointed out that Gaines was "ardent fundraiser for Newt Gingrich in the days when Gingrich was really all about zeroing out the funds for Public Broadcasting." According to her CPB biography, she is "an interior designer by training."

Gaines is affiliated with several right-wing organizations. Her CPB biography states that she is a current member of the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation. She has also served as a board member of the Hudson Institute and was a chairman of the National Review Institute from 1991-1993.