Watch Dog Blog:
http://citizen.typepad.com/watchdog_blog/bundling/index.htmlCandidates still not disclosing: Public Citizens Demands More On Bundlers
Public Citizen today sent letters to the seven major presidential candidates who have yet to provide any insight into how much their top fundraisers have raised. The letters asked the candidates to promptly disclose the names of bundlers who have brought in at least $100,000. The letters note that this minimal standard for disclosure was set by then-Gov. George W. Bush in his 2000 presidential campaign.
All of the candidates who have a realistic chance of capturing their party’s nomination are using bundlers, but only Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have provided any insight into how much their bundlers have raised. Obama names bundlers who have raised at least $50,000, $100,000 and $200,000; Clinton discloses bundlers who have raised at least $100,000.
The eventual winner of this presidential election will almost certainly feel a debt of gratitude to his or her bundlers. Voters have a right to know who these superfundraisers are before they choose which candidate to send to the Oval Office.
Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-070725obama,1,5894874.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout<snip>
But the Obama fundraising operation provides a contrast to an image that the campaign has ceaselessly cultivated as a movement powered by everyday Americans.
Among the high-level fundraisers on a list that the Obama campaign posted on its Web site late Tuesday is Kenneth Griffin, head of the Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel Investment Group LLC and among Mayor Richard Daley's top financial patrons. Griffin's $1.4 billion pay in 2006 made him the second highest-paid hedge fund manager in the country, according to Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine.
Though it is unclear how much Griffin has raised for Obama, employees of his firm have donated at least $169,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group.
The Obama campaign disclosed the names of 120 major fundraisers who had attracted at least $50,000 in contributions to Obama by June 30 through their appeals to friends, family and business associates. Together with a list released at the end of the first quarter, the campaign has identified 260 people who have raised that amount or more.
Half the fundraisers live in just three metropolitan regions that are seats of financial or political power: Washington, New York and Chicago. Obama's home base of Chicago accounts for the largest proportion of the large fundraisers, about a fifth, according to a Tribune analysis.
Along with many corporate executives, the newly disclosed Obama fundraisers include a smattering of entertainment industry figures. Lawrence Bender, co-producer of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and most of Quentin Tarantino's movies, is on the list. So is Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, brother of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and the model for the Ari Gold character on HBO's "Entourage." Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman Thomas Rothman and BET President and CEO Debra Lee also are among them.
Those major fundraisers, sometimes called bundlers, have an outsized importance in financing the campaign.
Though it is impossible to know exactly how much of the $58 million Obama raised during the first half of the year came by way of bundlers, those on the list would not be there if they had not raised at least $50,000. That means at least $13 million of his year-to-date total came through bundlers, and the total is probably much higher.
Despite the media attention the campaign has grabbed by attracting 258,000 donors—in many cases people of modest means who have given over the Internet—a much smaller group of large donors provides most of the funds for the campaign. And those large donors are best tapped through fundraisers who can call on networks of acquaintances and business associates who can easily write big checks.
The bundlers are crucial to raising money for a presidential primary campaign because federal law limits individuals to contributions of no more than $2,300 per candidate.
Sixty percent of the Obama campaign's funds come from people who have given at least $1,000, the kind of donors who are most often recruited by bundlers. Less than 30 percent of his contributions came from people who gave less than $200.(emphasized)
<snip>
Executive Intelligence Review:
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2007/3418bids_dem_candidate.htmlBidding War for the 2008 Dem Candidate
by Anita Gallagher
The financial industry, dominated by the "financial locust" hedge funds, has launched an unprecedented "acquisition drive" to buy up the field of 2008 Democratic candidates for President.
Democratic Presidential front-runners Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama have raised $26 million and $25 million, respectively, for first quarter 2007, a full year ahead of the first primaries. In the first quarter of April 2003, the then-Democratic front-runners John Kerry raised $7 million, and Howard Dean, $2.6 million—less than 20% of the money of the current two leaders.
The financial sector is the biggest contributor to both, except for the intertwined legal industry, contributing $1.2 million to Clinton, and $1.12 to Obama, by conservative estimate. These take the form of "bundled" contributions from individual employees in 140-150 financial firms, who are organized by the firms' leadership to contribute to selected candidates. These figures do not capture the substantial fundraising carried out by these big-buck powerhouses outside their firms, in social networks, or by family members.
Lyndon LaRouche has raised the question, "Who owns the candidate to be chosen?" in his paper "`Ask the Man Who Owns One.'" A case in point is LaRouche's Spring 2005 warning that the American auto industry was going under, and his proposed "Emergency Recovery Act of 2006" for Federal credit to retool, and save, the industry's unused capacity to produce infrastructure. Democratic Party leaders—including Senators Clinton, head of the Senate Caucus on Industry, and Obama—did absolutely nothing to stop the hedge-fund takeover of auto, listening instead to takeover specialist Felix Rohatyn, whose pedigree goes back to fascist financiers in World War II. Scores of auto plants closed, and 140,000 auto workers lost their jobs as a result. So, who is buying up the Democratic Party?
<snip>
How Independent Is Barack Obama?
The following hedge funds contributed to Obama's $25 million: The Blackstone Group, $42,000 (see Peter Cooper apartments note, above); Bain Capital, $6,900; Centerbridge Partners, which was formed by ex-Blackstone employees, $7,100; Fortress Investment Group, $6,900; Grosvenor Capital Management, $9,200; Soros Fund Management, $6,200; Tiger Management, $9,200; The Carlyle Group, which manages $56 billion, and will launch its own hedge fund in May; and New York Capital Management, $18,400; Ariel, $47,000.
Investment firms and buy-out specialists also contributed to Obama: Goldman Sachs, $120,000; Credit Suisse, $44,200; Lazard (managed by auto bankruptcy fixer Felix Rohatyn for decades), $12,700; UBS, the Zurich-based bank, $141,000; Lehman Brothers, $33,800; Merrill Lynch, $30,000; Morgan Stanley, $30,600; Chicago-based investment firm Henry Crown & Co., $24,600, and many others.
:think: :shrug:
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