recently required a considerable amount of presidential persuasion. Gov.
Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. did it last year by having President Bush available for
photos with $4,000 ticket-holders. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend did it by seating
her top donors at President Clinton’s dinner table.
Now Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley is asking his wealthiest backers to pay
$4,000 for the exclusive portion of his May 14 fund-raiser at Ravens Stadium.
Yet no president, past or present, is set to attend. Just O’Malley, and his
cadre of loyalists enlisted to pack the house however they see fit.
“He’s all we need,” said Colleen Martin Lauer, O’Malley’s fund-raising
consultant.
With the Sept. 9 Democratic primary fast approaching, the $4,000 price tag
– the most the mayor has ever charged – is buttressing O’Malley’s image as the
unbeatable incumbent armed with a campaign treasury that already exceeds $1
million.
Some of his most ardent supporters are already on the street urging
friends, family and business associates to get the campaign contributions
flowing.
In Little Italy, Mary Ann Cricchio, co-owner of Da Mimmo restaurant, is
stirring controversy by pressuring her company’s suppliers to pitch in to help
O’Malley raise money at next month’s event.
Last year, Cricchio and other O’Malley loyalists delivered more than $1
million in contributions at the same venue. A repeat performance this year, at
higher prices, will surely give the mayor at least $2 million to further
weaken the chances of real competition.
The General Assembly’s failure to move the primary to next year to coincide
with the 2004 general election caught many potential rivals by surprise. With
only five months before the primary, the few challengers who have emerged have
little time to raise the cash needed to pose a real threat, political
observers said.
Except, perhaps, Maryland Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, whose
candidacy is still just speculation.
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“He’s the only candidate who could raise that kind of money,” said Gene
Raynor, a Schaefer adviser. “He could raise it within two months.”
Absent Schaefer or some other high-profile challengers, O’Malley appears to
have more than enough money to mount a successful campaign. Whatever money
remains could help elect a friendly City Council. The rest would come in handy
in 2006.
“He’s not only raising money for the mayoral campaign, he’s raising money
for a gubernatorial bid” in 2006, said potential rival Carl Stokes, a former
City Council member and failed mayoral candidate against O’Malley in 1999. “He
has more than enough money to run a stronger campaign than he did four years
ago.”
The $4,000 ticket price is not a randomly picked figure. Under state law,
$4,000 is the maximum any one donor can give to any candidate in a four-year
cycle. The state’s new cycle began in January and already O’Malley is asking
his big-money backers to max out on him.
“He’s the front-runner for mayor, and he’s maximizing his potential,” said
Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr., who is considering a run for City Council
president. “He’s also trying to raise his profile for bigger and better
things.”
Most political observers have been quick to agree that campaign
contributors will readily pay the price despite O’Malley’s self-deprecating
expectations. The $4,000 ticket price, the mayor said recently, “is for my
three friends who want to sit on my lap.”
So what will O’Malley’s $4,000 donors get for their money if not a photo
with Bush or a dinner with Clinton?
Time.
O’Malley’s $4,000 friends – whom his campaign has dubbed VVIPs – begin
their reception with O’Malley at 5:30 p.m., a full hour before the $1,000
donors arrive. That places a $50 value on each of the extra 60 minutes those
top-tiered backers get over the mid-tier supporters. The crowd paying the
lowest price of $250 arrives at 7:30 p.m.
O’Malley’s fund-raiser last year, which attracted 1,700 people, consisted
of two tiers: $250 and $1,000.
“Many of those who came to the $1,000 fund-raiser last year said there were
too many people there,” O’Malley said. “So that’s why we’re doing a smaller
group for those who can help me at that $4,000 level.”
O’Malley said he has asked nearly 200 friends to start spreading the word
about the May 14 fund-raiser, a plea that one supporter, Cricchio, pursued
almost immediately.
Cricchio sent a letter dated March 31 to her restaurant’s suppliers
strongly urging them to buy tickets to the mayor’s fund-raiser.
The letter reads, in part: “Da Mimmo does more business today, because of
the hard work of Mayor O’Malley. When Da Mimmo does more business, you do more
business as a supplier to Da Mimmo.”
It also states, “Considering the amount of business Da Mimmo does with your
company, I certainly hope you will find it in your budget to mail me a check
made payable to: Friends of Martin O’Malley, so you and I may continue to do
business in a city that is improving everyday.”
An unsigned letter protesting Da Mimmo’s soon followed and circulated
throughout Little Italy. It states: “The translation that we understand from
[Cricchio’s] demanding letter is No money for O’Malley, No business for all
the Little Italy restaurant distributors.”
Cricchio said her letter asserts no such demand.
“I do business with the purveyors who provide me with the best-quality
merchandise,” she said. “I am raising money for a good politician. Everything
is better under Mayor O’Malley.”
O’Malley said he does not monitor how his friends raise money.
“Some call up four or five family members and raise it quickly,” he said.
“Others send out letters. Others do I-don’t-know-what. What has made this
fund-raiser successful in the past is the huge network of people who help sell
tickets.”
Who buys the tickets is not yet a matter of public record. But the campaign
manager of the only candidate to officially file to run against O’Malley in
the Democratic primary said contributors are blatantly buying influence.
“Big money has corrupted this process,” said Julius Henson, the campaign
manager for Andrey Bundley, the Walbrook High School principal running for
mayor. “What the mayor is selling is influence and the assets of Baltimore.”
Henson said Bundley would not accept contributions above $500 and is
refusing donations from corporations.
“We’re saying no to special interests,” Henson said.
Stokes also criticized O’Malley for charging such a high ticket price,
saying contributors will be expecting much more than “just hors d’oeuvres.”
“It’s not a figure meant to intimidate opponents,” Stokes said. “It’s an
intimidation of the people to whom he’s saying, `Pony up or you won’t be my
friend for the next five years.'”
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O’Malley said he believes that all contributions are crucial to his
campaign. That is why he held a far less expensive fund-raiser at Hammerjack’s
nightclub on March 23 that raised $65,000 and featured the band O’Malley
fronts.
“Whether it’s $35 or $4,000, the fact is that every campaign tries to bring
in as many people as possible to the greatest degree they’re capable,” he
said. “We try to get as much as we can in terms of time and money from
everyone who believes the work of this administration should continue.”
One of those supporters is Edward Dopkin, owner of Alonso’s and Loco Hombre
restaurants on Cold Spring Lane.
Dopkin purchased a $4,000 ticket for the May 14 event in order to help
O’Malley build his campaign treasury, not to have the chance to schmooze.
“I don’t have the money to spend just to get a picture taken or to shake
his hand,” Dopkin said. “I want to see him get as much done before he moves to
the next step. If adding to his war chest makes a statement that people
believe in him to this degree, it might make others think twice about
running.”