WP, pg1: Big Donors Among Obama's Grass Roots; 'Bundlers' Have a Voice in Campaign

[DeepModem Mom]

Big Donors Among Obama's Grass Roots
'Bundlers' Have a Voice in Campaign
By Matthew Mosk and Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 11, 2008; A01

Sen. Barack Obama credits his presidential campaign with creating a "parallel public financing system" built on a wave of modest donations from homemakers and high school teachers. Small givers, he said at a fundraiser this week, "will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful."

But those with wealth and power also have played a critical role in creating Obama's record-breaking fundraising machine, and their generosity has earned them a prominent voice in shaping his campaign. Seventy-nine "bundlers," five of them billionaires, have tapped their personal networks to raise at least $200,000 each. They have helped the campaign recruit more than 27,000 donors to write checks for $2,300, the maximum allowed. Donors who have given more than $200 account for about half of Obama's total haul, which stands at nearly $240 million.

Obama's success in assembling bundlers offers another perspective on a campaign that promotes itself as a grass-roots effort. While the senator from Illinois has had unprecedented success generating small donations, many made online, the work of bundlers first signaled the seriousness of his candidacy a year ago and will be crucial as he heads into the final Democratic primaries with a lead against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).

The bundler list also sheds light on those who might seek to influence an Obama White House. It includes traditional Democratic givers -- Hollywood, trial lawyers and Wall Street -- and newcomers such as young hedge fund executives, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Chicago-based developers and members of the black business elite. One-third had never contributed to a presidential campaign, much less raised money.

The list includes partners from 18 top law firms, 21 Wall Street executives and power brokers from Fortune 500 companies. California is the top source, with 19 bundlers. Both Illinois and Washington, D.C., have six, and five hail from New York....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041004045_pf.html

[stray cat]

1. If Obama could not raise enough money he couldn't compete in the GE

[pocoloco]

2. Hot Damn!! Great news!!

Let's hope they keep it up!$!$!

[DeepModem Mom]

4. I agree -- no $$$, no win. nt

[Cheap_Trick]

3. I love the smell of desperation in the morning...

it smells like....victory for Obama.



Maybe we should take a look at Hilla(R)y's donors...see who owns her.....

[Cheap_Trick]

5. ask and I shall receive....

Past Clouds Candidates’ Donor Lists
Names From ’90s Scandal Among Clinton ‘Bundlers’

By John Solomon and Matthew Mosk
Thursday, September 20, 2007; A01

A list of the donors who have “bundled” large sums from dozens of individuals to give to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign includes several figures who were involved in the 1990s Democratic Party fundraising scandal that tarnished her husband’s record.

Among them is an Oklahoma oilman who testified in the mid-1990s that the firm he worked for, owned by Democratic fundraisers, sought to curry favor with Bill Clinton’s administration by providing payments and a golf club membership to a Cabinet secretary’s son…

Clinton includes on her list of “Hillraisers” — those who have committed to raising more than $100,000 for her White House bid — several financiers linked to past troubles. They include Marvin Rosen, the former Democratic National Committee finance chairman whose efforts to reward six-figure party donors with attendance at White House coffees and overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom became the focal point of Senate hearings into fundraising abuses…

William Stuart Price, the Oklahoma oilman also on the “Hillraiser” list, stunned a courtroom in 1995 when he detailed how his former gas company had tried to “gain influence” with the Clinton administration by providing $160,000 in money and membership in a ritzy Washington golf club to the son of a Cabinet secretary…

Price’s testimony became the focal point of a criminal investigation of Ron Brown, then commerce secretary and a former chairman of the Democratic Party. The inquiry ended with the conviction of Price’s former bosses, Nora and Gene Lum, for making illegal donations.

Also on the list is former senator Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.), who withdrew from a 2002 reelection campaign after being “severely admonished” by the Senate for taking lavish gifts from a businessman and contributor, David Chang…

“It seems like deja vu,” said Michael Madigan, a Republican lawyer who helped lead an extensive investigation into the Clinton administration’s 1996 fundraising practices by then-Sen. Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.). “It sounds like a carbon copy of the last Clinton campaign.” …

“The most important thing I learned about this issue is that all campaigns have the same problem, regardless of party or candidate: How do you know who has skeletons and who does not?” said Lanny Davis, who as special counsel to Bill Clinton handled campaign finance issues for him from 1996 to 1998. “Let’s face it: Campaign organizations are not ‘CSI’ — not even close — even if they’d like to be.” …

Well, if the moral ethicist (and Pakistan lobbyist) Lanny Davis says it’s okay, then it must be okay.



http://sweetness-light.com/archive/wp-finds-former-shady-donors-on-hillarys-list



you were saying? :rofl:

on edit: In fact, this deserves a post of it's own.