Sen Obama has made a point of pointing out his online fundraising, and small donor base. He has been much less public about his courting of large money donors, apparently concerned that it would tarnish his image with the American public.
Still, he began rounding up those large money donors shortly after his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention, and before he even began running for the US Senate. A clear picture of his future political ambitions is beginning to form.
Sen Obama called Alan Solomont, a Boston Democrat who has personally given more than $1.5 million to Democrat candidates and causes over the years, in February of 2005. In December 2006 he met with "a roomful of high-powered Democrat fund-raisers" in the New York offices of billionaire George Soros.
Early the same year, Obama attended a dinner in the San Francisco Bay area of about 20 major Kerry supporters that was organized by Mark Gorenberg, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was Kerry's single biggest fund-raiser, after an inquiry from Obama's staff. Several on hand, including Gorenberg and John Roos, head of a Silicon Valley law firm, became among the earliest and biggest check collectors for Obama's presidential bid.
Sen Obama initially agreed to accept public financing of his Presidential Campaign, a move that would have limited the amount he could have raised privately. His reversal on that promise now allows him to raise an estimated $300 million, and he is expected to raise a whole lot more before the election.
Michael Malbin is the Executive Director of the Campaign Finance Institute. He says, "It's fairly clear that this is being packaged as an extraordinary new kind of fund-raising, and the Internet is a new and powerful part of it. But it's also clear that many of the old donors are still there and important."
While it is clear that Sen Obama will set new records for internet online contributions, it is the old school special interest money that makes up the important part of his campaign.
Lawyers make up the largest group at about 130, with many working for firms that also have lobbying arms. At least 100 Obama bundlers are top executives or brokers from investment businesses - nearly two dozen work for financial titans like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. About 40 others come from the real-estate industry.
The biggest fund-raisers include people like Julius Genachowski, a former senior official at the Federal Communications Commission and a technology executive who is new to big-time political fund-raising; Robert Wolf, president and chief operating officer of UBS Investment Bank; James Torrey, a New York hedge fund investor; and Charles Rivkin, an animation studio head in Los Angeles.
Like any other politician running for elective office, Sen Obama relies on fundraisers to both feed his campaign, and fire up his base. It was at a closed-door San Francisco fundraiser that he made his famous gaffe, during which he said of small town Americans, "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Next week Sen Obama will be attending a fundraiser in Hawaii, a working vacation, taking time off from the campaign trail. Because of that fundraiser, expected to bring in an additional $500,000, he will miss the opportunity to meet with troops and their families at a Townhall meeting with John McCain, in Texas.
Recent comments