| There's a detailed, front page story in yesterday's NYT on the history of Obama's big money raising success. Now Obama is the guy who attracted so many progressives because of his claims of not being beholden to lobbyists and big money folks. The whole primary season, he got pretty much a free pass on that with no examination of his fundraising techniques, other than to say he was so good at raising all his money through small online donations. Now all of a sudden, the NYT is doing a little investigative reporting on this. I just want to highlight their findings here. Click link below for the full report.
First it's noted that Obama actually has received more large donations (over $1,000) than either John McCain or Hillary Clinton. Behind those large donations is "a phalanx of more than 500 Obama bundlers."* The Obama campaign donor bundlers now rival George W. Bush's primary bundlers, called the Pioneers and Rangers, of 2004. Obama has actually been tapping into some of these big donors since before he ran for the Senate in 2004. "A large part of of Obama's presidential campaign's fast start was its success in scooping up former John Kerry's fund-raisers." BHO's campaign has "cultivated a network of these bundlers to bring in record amounts" of big bucks. One of his top bundlers is quoted as saying: "When you combine the traditional fund-raising methods with online contributions, you have a very, very powerful fundraising engine."
Since he is not accepting public financing, Obama is now counting on his bundlers to help him raise money for the GE. The bundlers say their support is not rooted in promise of access. However, they do meet quarterly and Obama does attend these meetings. The bundlers also spend backstage time with the senator before his big speeches. It is also noted that hedge-fund executives have bundled large sums for Obama at a time when their industry is seeking more power in D.C.
Bundling is also intricately part of Obama's day-to-day fund-raising operation:
The Obama fund-raising operation is meticulously organized. Bundlres are assigned tracking numbers, and the campaign's finance staff sends them reminders of how they are doing meeting their goals."
And one final note:
Many of the bundlers sit on the campaign's array of policy working groups.
(Of course, they have no actual influence on these policies! They're just sitting there!)
Here's the full story:
Big Donors, Too, Have Seats at Obama Fund-Raising Table
By MICHAEL LUO and CHRISTOPHER DREW
Published: August 5, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08...
p.s. Of course, McCain has his own big money fund-raising and bundling, as did Hillary in the primary season. But they never pretended otherwise. The point is, Barack Obama just doesn't seem to be who he says he is. He just seems to make things up. Kind of like a fairytale?
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*Wikipedia gives a short desription of the practice of bundling:
"Another consequence of the limitation upon personal contributions from any one individual ($2300 for each election, with a total of $4600 for a primary and general election as of 2007) is that campaigns seek out "bundlers", people who can gather contributions from many individuals in an organization or community, and present the sum to the campaign. Campaigns then elevate and publicise these bundlers to an elite level. Bundlers became especially important after the 2002 revision to campaign finance law made unrestricted soft money more difficult to get through corporations and other big organizations." |
