“Hillary has asked us to do all we can for Barack" -- but some Clinton fund-raisers are hesitant

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Obama Camp Courts Clinton Fund-Raisers
By MICHAEL LUO
Published: June 12, 2008

With Senator Barack Obama’s campaign manager scheduled to meet Thursday with top fund-raisers for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York, there is resistance from at least some in her once-vaunted network to supporting Mr. Obama. David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager, is planning to meet on Thursday in New York and Friday in New Jersey with a large group of Clinton fund-raisers. Seeking to unite the Democratic Party and the candidates’ donor bases, campaign officials are also in the midst of arranging a joint meeting with the candidates to introduce Mr. Obama to Mrs. Clinton’s biggest money collectors sometime over the next two weeks.

The Clinton campaign’s senior fund-raising officials have been holding conference calls with fund-raisers by region over the last few days — some two dozen in all are planned — to urge them to plunge in on behalf of Mr. Obama for his general election showdown with Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee. But several people involved in the calls said it was obvious from the tenor of them that emotions remained raw for many.

While it appears that many Clinton backers are poised to begin immediately raising money for Mr. Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee, several categorically ruled that out in interviews....“The Obama campaign has a lot to show me before I will consider being there for them,” said Susie Tompkins Buell, co-founder of the clothing company Esprit and a longtime friend of Mrs. Clinton. Ms. Buell said she wanted to see how Mrs. Clinton was treated over the next few weeks, a sentiment that she said was shared by many of the women, especially, in her donor network. “Hillary has asked us to do all we can for Barack,” she said. “I listen to that and respect that, but personally I need to evaluate.”...

***

Hoping to allay some of the continuing ill will, Mr. Plouffe is scheduled to meet with members of Mrs. Clinton’s New York finance operation on Thursday afternoon at a Midtown Manhattan law office. Two meetings are scheduled, an initial smaller gathering to which some of the Clinton fund-raising heavyweights have been invited, including Hassan Nemazee, Alan Patricof and Maureen White, and then a larger forum that will include others on Mrs. Clinton’s New York finance committee. Jonathan Mantz, the Clinton campaign’s finance director, also began this week to hash out in greater detail with Julianna Smoot, Mr. Obama’s finance director, how their respective operations should be integrated.

Many Clinton fund-raisers, however, say they want to wait until a meeting is scheduled between the two candidates and Mrs. Clinton’s “Hillraisers,” those who have raised $100,000 or more for her....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/politics/12donors.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Cha]

1. Of course, "emotions are still raw"..there're

still raw for me too.

[Windy]

2. I refuse to buy any more Espirit for my neices

That kind of attitude has no place in the democratic party. She is also the individual who spearheaded a 527 group that was going to make ads smearing Obama during the primaries.

[americanstranger]

3. I'm not really concerned with the 'Hillraisers.'

They are the 'old model' of political fundraising.

For all the claims of their enormous clout, they were left in the dust by Obama's online fundraising.

Just like that guy who sent the DNC that threatening letter a few weeks back, this Buell woman can smell that she's semi-irrelevant at this point. If a handful of them want to be pissy about raising for O, no skin off my nose.

- as

[Lerkfish]

4. I'm not worried at all.

old front-end load fundraisers are dinosaurs.