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 News from Around the Americas | April 2007 
Donors Linked to the Clintons Shift to Obama
 David D. Kirkpatrick & Aron Pilhofer - NYTimes
Washington — As Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton seeks to reassemble the Democratic money machine her husband built, some of its major fund-raisers have already signed on with Senator Barack Obama.
Among the biggest fund-raisers for Mr. Obama’s campaign are as many as a half-dozen former guests of the Clinton White House. At least two are close enough to the Clintons to have slept in the Lincoln bedroom.
At minimum, a dozen were major fund-raisers for President Bill Clinton. At least four worked in the administration and one, James Rubin, is a son of a former Clinton Treasury Secretary, Robert E. Rubin. About two dozen of the top Obama fund-raisers have contributed to Mrs. Clinton’s Senate campaigns or political action committee, some as recently as a few months ago.
A list of Mr. Obama’s top fund-raisers released Sunday showed the extent to which the Democratic Party establishment, once presumed to back Mrs. Clinton, has become more fragmented and drifted into her rival’s camp, lending the early stages of the Democratic primary campaign the feeling of a family feud. Some of the movement would have been inevitable given Mr. Clinton’s former dominance of the party.
The donors helped Mr. Obama, a first-term senator little known outside Illinois four years ago, best Mrs. Clinton in the first quarter of fund-raising for the Democratic primary by $5.7 million, according to reports filed Sunday with the Federal Election Commission.
But her campaign proved it still had the support of some deep pockets. About 5,100 big contributors accounted for about three quarters of the $26 million combined that she raised for the primary and general election, pulling her very slightly ahead of Mr. Obama by just $200,000 in total fund-raising for the quarter. And, with $10 million rolling over to her primary campaign from her last Senate race in New York, Mrs. Clinton was well ahead in cash in the bank.
Some former Clinton administration officials among Mr. Obama’s top fund-raisers were Reed E. Hundt, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; Michael Froman and Brian Mathis of the Clinton Treasury Department; and Greg Craig, a Clinton White House lawyer.
Phil Singer, a Clinton campaign spokesman, said the drift of former supporters of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton to Mr. Obama reflected the former president’s dominance of the party during the 1990s.
“Most Democrats who were politically active in the 1990s had ties to the Clinton administration, and we are pleased to have much of their support today,” Mr. Singer said.
The first quarter financial reports, which were due at midnight Sunday, offer a glimpse into an aspect of the 2008 presidential election that sets it apart. All of the leading candidates have chosen to forgo public campaign financing in order to raise and spend private donations without any limits. Several have raised more than three times as much as any candidate did during the same period before the last election.
The leading Republicans filed their reports Friday and Saturday. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama were the two top fund-raisers in either party. Mrs. Clinton raised $19.1 million for the primary, and $6.9 million for use in the general election (accessible only if she wins the nomination).
Mr. Obama raised $24.8 million for the primary and $1 million for the general election.
The primary campaign of John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, said in its filing that he had spent less than $3 million of the $13 million he raised in the quarter, leaving him with $10.7 million in the bank. He raised less than $1 million for the general election.
Campaign finance laws cap contributions to each phase of the race at $2,300, leading to a frantic scramble among the top contenders in each party to assemble networks of fund-raisers, bundlers, who can collect $2,300 checks from friends and associates. But dependence on such large checks can pose a risk to campaign momentum because the big donors cannot continue to give as the campaign continues.
Although Mr. Obama has sought to publicize his campaign’s emphasis on small contributions, he, too, depended heavily on a relatively small number of big checks. About 4,800 supporters gave the maximum $2,300 to his primary campaign, accounting for about $11 million, nearly half his total. About 75 of those donors gave another $2,300 to his general election fund, according to an analysis of his campaign’s filing.
On Sunday, his campaign released a list of about 130 bundlers who had each raised $50,000, for more than $6.5 million, about a quarter of his total for both races.
Mrs. Clinton, though, depended even more heavily on a relatively narrow base of wealthy and committed donors who contributed about $19 million. More than 5,100 gave about the legal limit of $2,300 to her primary campaign, contributing more than $11.7 million, nearly two thirds of her primary fund. What is more, nearly 3,000 of those who had already hit the $2,300 limit for the primary also contributed $2,300 toward her general election fund.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign also released its own list of 84 bundlers who had each collected $100,000 or more in checks for her campaign, together accounting for at least $8.4 million.
Both campaigns emphasized their small donors. Mr. Obama’s campaign said it received contributions from 104,000 individuals and raised $6.9 million over the Internet. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign said it received money from 60,000 individuals and raised $4.2 million over the Internet.
Mrs. Clinton’s filings also suggested that she is running a relatively frugal campaign, at least by the standards of the leading Republicans or, for that matter, her Senate campaigns. Her campaign said it spent about $5 million during the quarter and ended the quarter with about $24 million to spend on the primary, including the $10 million left over from her earlier campaign.
Her campaign also reported about $1.6 million in debt, including $154,000 to her longtime media adviser Mandy Grunwald and $277,000 to Mark Penn, her principal political consultant. A spokesman said the debts were just outstanding bills still to be paid on the campaign’s normal cycle of disbursements. Harold Ickes, another top Clinton adviser, is contributing his services for free.
Mr. Obama’s campaign spent $6.6 million, ending up with $18.2 million for the primary and $190,000 in debt.
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Washington, and Aron Pilhofer from New York. John M. Broder and Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting from Washington, and Patrick Healy from New York. |
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