http://tinyurl.com/btpm7U2 Moves to Distance Itself From Concert Fund-Raising
By PATRICK D. HEALY
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton may be holding a $2,500-a-person fund-raiser at a U2 concert on Wednesday, and her husband may be best buds with Bono, but do not assume that the band's political celebrity is endorsing New York's celebrity politician.
A close associate of Bono's took the unusual step this week of disassociating the singer and the band from a trend in the Washington-entertainment nexus: candidates using access to sold-out concerts as a means of wooing major donors.
The move came after a Web site, NewsMax.com, reported that U2 was "teaming up" with another senator, Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania, for a thousand-dollar-a-seat concert in Philadelphia on Sunday. Mr. Santorum's office responded that the story was incorrect: the senator has bought only 66 seats, which supporters can repurchase for the higher price.
Yet erroneous reports continued on the Internet and cable television, prompting an advocacy group that was founded by Bono and others - Debt AIDS Trade Africa, or DATA - to release a statement distancing the performers from these fund-raising events.
"If any political fund-raising events take place at a U2 concert, it is without the involvement or knowledge of DATA, U2, or Bono," Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA, said in the statement. "U2 concerts are categorically not fund-raisers for any politician; they are rock concerts for U2 fans."
Representatives of Mrs. Clinton's re-election campaign and of Mr. Santorum said yesterday that the fund-raisers would take place regardless of DATA's statement.
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