Fundraising breaks political alliances

[Colobo]

http://www.columbian.com/news/APStories/AP04212007news129931.cfm

In the Democratic field there is even more potential for strain. Clinton's bundlers are longtime backers who raised money for her two Senate races and her husband's presidential campaigns. Obama, meanwhile, cultivated new donors while peeling away several Bill Clinton supporters and backers of John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid.

Among his 122 first-quarter bundlers, Obama picked up Lou Susman, a Chicago investment banker who served as Kerry's national fundraising chairman. He also nabbed Alan Solomont, a longtime Democratic fundraiser who led a team that brought in $35 million for Kerry.

Solomont was also a dedicated fundraiser for Bill Clinton, and was appointed by the former president in 1997 to serve as finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee.

Solomont is just one of several former Clinton loyalists who've signed on with Obama this time. Others include Reed Hundt, Clinton's first chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and Gregory Craig, a classmate of both Clintons at Yale Law School who coordinated Bill Clinton's impeachment defense in 1998.

"I believe there are several other Democratic candidates who would be terrific presidents, but I think Barack Obama is the right candidate for the time," Craig said.

Clinton aides contend that they're not surprised Obama has attracted activists once tied to the former president, arguing that any Democrat who was active in national politics during the 1990s had some connection to her husband's administration.

But Hillary Clinton has also endured some high-profile defections, including Hollywood mogul David Geffen, who announced his shift to Obama in a February New York Times interview that was highly critical of both Clintons.

Hillary Clinton raised her record-breaking first quarter total of $26 million with support from 84 bundlers, many of whom were courted heavily by other campaigns. They include Hollywood titans like producer Steven Bing and Haim Saban, creator of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; businessmen Steve Rattner and Robert Zimmerman; and hedge fund managers Marc Lasry and Tom Steyer. Nearly all of them have been connected to both Clintons for years.

But Clinton was less successful than Obama in courting new, younger high donors just starting to be active in politics - an oversight her fundraising team vows to correct this time.

She was also less successful than Obama in courting a group of well-connected donors who had pledged their support to former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. Almost all of his national fundraising leaders decamped to Obama after Warner withdrew from the race.

Don Beyer, a businessman and the former lieutenant governor of Virginia under Warner, said he was drawn to Obama as someone who could repair years of political polarization.

"Even Bill Clinton, whom I very much admired as president, didn't get 50 percent of the vote either time he ran," Beyer said. "And the whole Monica Lewinsky thing - it was a divisive period in political life. I'm hungry for a president who will bring this country together."

[dorktv]

1. I am so tired of people expecting white knights.

Look, it will take a lot of people working together instead of just one magicial man (or woman) to solve this country's problems. Just like in the old days.

[SharonAnn]

2. Umm, Obama is African-American (not white)

[dorktv]

4. I am not refering to race, I am refering to the habit of too many people to

expect some mythical knight in shining armor to swoop in and make everyone hold hands and do singalongs.

When FDR got into power he was only a part of a whole, same with LBJ, Truman, and all sorts of other presidents. Can a President provide leadership? Yes, can the person fix everything? No and no one should expect them to.

[Greyhound]

3. But it is the one person that directs people so that they do work together.

It is the one person that sets the agenda, decides who will have how much sway in the decision making process, selects who will head the teams working to accomplish various tasks required, as well as what those tasks will be. It is called leadership and it has been sorely lacking in our party for generations.

[dorktv]

5. Leadership is fine but one person cannot solve all problems and too

many people think that is the case.

[Greyhound]

10. I don't understand your point.

I don't think that his supporters believe that he will solve all of our problems, but that he will act as the driving force to allow all of us to solve our problems. They believe that he will move in directions that will make a difference, something we don't see many of our current crop of "leaders" doing.

It seems to me to be a case of a new generation/new ideas kind of thing. I personally don't think he will stand up to the existing power structure and that's why I don't support him at this point in the process.

[amandabeech]

6. This is so nauseating.

Money, money, money makes the world go round. I just wish that it didn't have nearly as much to do for whom we get to vote for office and to whom candidates will listen.

If it takes a Constitutional Amendment to clean this up, so be it.

Anyone here have experience with campaigns in other democracies? How are they funded?

[Colobo]

7. Well, in the US colony of Puerto Rico

Candidates are give a fixed amount of money by the government to campaign. If they spend more than what they got, they can make a loan to the Elections Comission, but they got to repay it in 2 years or less unless they want their party to be disqualified.

[amandabeech]

8. Do you think that the candidates are less likely to do the bidding

of the wealthy in Puerto Rico than on the mainland?

It sounds like you favor independence for Puerto Rico. Is that true? How are the referenda financed?

[unkachuck]

9. well....

....you can tell a good corporate candidate from a poor one by the number and size of the corporate cash-teats they suck....

....this is good to know....I certainly need to know who's sucking who so I can make an informed primary choice....