Obama’s Not-So-Hot Date With Wall Street
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, NYT
In late January, Brad Thompson, the Obama campaign’s chief liaison to major donors in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, called some of his contacts in the area, most of them Wall Street executives. The president’s next trip to town would be in early March. Would they be interested in helping to host a small dinner?
For Obama — and therefore Thompson — things had not been going well in New York. The president had already traveled to the city around 20 times during his first term, but he wasn’t collecting money from Wall Street the way he used to. By the end of January 2008, Obama had raised well over $7 million from the securities and investment industry. By the end of January this year, he had only $2.4 million to show. Thompson needed this event to bring in at least $2 million more.
Within a week, he and his two deputies had recruited half a dozen donors to anchor the dinner. It would be their job to bring in most of the guests — and the money. Some were longtime and well-connected supporters of the president: the New Jersey investor Orin Kramer, who has raised more than $2 million for Obama this cycle; Jane Hartley, a Carter administration alumna and head of the Observatory Group, an economic and political consulting firm; her husband, Ralph Schlosstein; and Robert Wolf, the chairman of UBS Americas. Marc Lasry, a well-known hedge-funder and veteran of the Clintons’ fabled fund-raising machine, also signed on. So did Antonio Weiss, the head of investment banking at Lazard, marking his first time out as a host of a presidential dinner.
Three other events were to be held in New York the same day, including a $1,000-a-head gala that would draw close to a thousand people. But the dinner would be a different kind of affair. It would include no more than 60 guests — large enough to make it worth committing an hour and a half of the president’s time, small enough to give donors a sense of intimacy with the most powerful man on the planet. Tickets would top out at $35,800 per person, the maximum combined donation any individual can make to a presidential candidate and his party in a given year.
(More here.)
In late January, Brad Thompson, the Obama campaign’s chief liaison to major donors in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, called some of his contacts in the area, most of them Wall Street executives. The president’s next trip to town would be in early March. Would they be interested in helping to host a small dinner?
For Obama — and therefore Thompson — things had not been going well in New York. The president had already traveled to the city around 20 times during his first term, but he wasn’t collecting money from Wall Street the way he used to. By the end of January 2008, Obama had raised well over $7 million from the securities and investment industry. By the end of January this year, he had only $2.4 million to show. Thompson needed this event to bring in at least $2 million more.
Within a week, he and his two deputies had recruited half a dozen donors to anchor the dinner. It would be their job to bring in most of the guests — and the money. Some were longtime and well-connected supporters of the president: the New Jersey investor Orin Kramer, who has raised more than $2 million for Obama this cycle; Jane Hartley, a Carter administration alumna and head of the Observatory Group, an economic and political consulting firm; her husband, Ralph Schlosstein; and Robert Wolf, the chairman of UBS Americas. Marc Lasry, a well-known hedge-funder and veteran of the Clintons’ fabled fund-raising machine, also signed on. So did Antonio Weiss, the head of investment banking at Lazard, marking his first time out as a host of a presidential dinner.
Three other events were to be held in New York the same day, including a $1,000-a-head gala that would draw close to a thousand people. But the dinner would be a different kind of affair. It would include no more than 60 guests — large enough to make it worth committing an hour and a half of the president’s time, small enough to give donors a sense of intimacy with the most powerful man on the planet. Tickets would top out at $35,800 per person, the maximum combined donation any individual can make to a presidential candidate and his party in a given year.
(More here.)
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