by Mike Dorning
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama released an updated list of his top fundraisers today that dislcoses new information on their activities and shows heavy backing from hedge-fund managers, financial industry executives and private investors.
The list of “bundlers”–so called because they gather up contributions into large bundles–provides slightly more detailed disclosure for amounts of money each fundraiser has produced than his opponents offer.
The updated list, posted on his campaign web site, covers fundraising through the third quarter of the year and lists the amount of money each has raised in broad ranges. Other identifying information such as their cities of residence and employers are not listed but in many cases can be determined by independently searching Federal Election Commission donor records for the campaign.Most of the 326 individuals or couples named on the list already have been disclosed by the campaign but the information on the amounts they have raised is new. The list categorizes their fundraising totals in three broad ranges: $50,000 to $100,000; $100,000 to $200,000; and more than $200,000. There are 76 individuals and couples in the highest-dollar category.
Democratic rival Hillary Clinton discloses the names of supporters who have raised at least $100,000 for her campaign but does not provide further information on the amount of money they have raised.
Among the Chicago-area figures raising more than $200,000 for Obama so far are billionaire real estate mogul Neil Bluhm; Frank Clark, chairman and chief executive officer of Exelon’s Commonwealth Edison utility; Jim Crown, member of tthe billionaire Crown family and president of Henry Crown & Co., and his wife Paula; Bruce Heyman, a managing director in the Goldman Sachs Chicago office, and his wife Vicki; liberal activist Marilyn Katz and her husband Allan; hotel and real estate billionaire Penny Pritzker, Obama’s national finance chair; Jim Reynolds, chairman and CEO of Loop Capital Markets; John Rogers, chairman and CEO of Ariel Capital Management; Lou Susman, a Chicago investment banker who was national finance chairman of John Kerry’s presidential campaign; Tina Tchen, a lawyer at Skadden Arps and former president of the Cook County Democratic Women’s Organization; Les Coney and Jim Tyree, respectively executive vice president and chairman and CEO of Mesirow Financial; and Winetka Democratic activist Anne Wedner, who is the wife of venture capital partner Marcus Wedner and helped spearhead the get-out-the vote effort for Obama in his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign.
Kenneth Griffin, head of the Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel Investment Group, is listed as raising between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama, although employees of his firm have contributed more than $166,000.
Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, brother of Chicago congressman Rahm Emanuel, is listed as raising between $100,000 and $200,000 for Obama.
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Entertainment mogul David Geffen, co-founder of Dreamworks, who stirred controversy the day after hosting a gala Hollywood fundraiser for Obama by giving an interview to the New York Times attacking Bill and Hillary Clinton, raised between $50,000 and $100,000. Fellow Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who co-hosted the event without arousing controversy, is listed as raising more than $200,000.
Mark Gorenberg, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who oversaw California fundraising for Kerry in 2004, also is listed as raising more than $200,000. So is Boston nursing home magnate and former Democratic party national finance chairman Alan Solomont, another leading Kerry fundraiser. Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, an early supporter of Mark Warners aborted presidential campaign, also is listed as a top-tier fundraiser.
Campaigns are not legally required to disclose their fundraisers, only their donors. But because of controversy over the role of fundraisers in political campaigns, several presidential candidates voluntarily disclose the identities of people who have raised large amounts of money for their campaigns.
Since individuals are limited to contributing $2,300 to a federal primary campaign and the same to a federal general election campaign, fundraisers who can tap large networks of well-heeled friends or business associates play a key role in funding federal political campaigns.