It appears that we’re ‘getting back to the business of solving our problems and not sideshow and carnival barker distractions,’ according to Helene Cooper, Obama Heads to New York to Try to Thaw Donors From Wall Street, N.Y. Times, Apr. 28, 2011, at A16.
President Obama, seeking to mend fences with big New York donors to the Democratic Party, came to New York to headline three back-to-back fund-raisers on Wednesday night, casting his re-election campaign as the next step in the effort to speed up the economic recovery.
“People are worried about the future of the American dream,” Mr. Obama told some 60 donors who paid up to $35,800 a plate to be part of the first scheduled event, a dinner party with the president at the Manhattan home of Jon S. Corzine, the former governor of New Jersey.
… Democrats are hoping that Mr. Obama can make peace, somewhat at least, with Wall Street, where financiers have expressed increased alienation with the party and the White House after the oratorical pounding they have taken for their part in the financial crisis that began in 2008. Several hedge fund managers who supported Mr. Obama in 2008 now indicate that they will support the Republican Party in 2012.
Mr. Obama began his kiss-and-make-up effort at the home of Mr. Corzine, a former chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs. Mr. Corzine has deep ties to the financial services industry, and now heads MF Global, a financial services firm.
Democrats are hoping that Mr. Obama’s fund-raising efforts can top the $750 million he raised in the 2008 campaign, and possibly reach $1 billion.
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NYT: New Stable of Wealthy Donors Fueled Obama Campaign’s Record Fund-Raising Quarter (7/16/2011)
President Obama recruited roughly 150 new elite donors, raising as much as a half a million dollars each, to help propel him to a large and early lead over his Republican opponents in the race for campaign cash, according to campaign filings released last week.
The new fund-raisers, including Silicon Valley executives, people active in gay rights causes and onetime supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, dominate the list of top donors that Mr. Obama’s campaign released on Friday, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Known as bundlers, they are typically deep-pocketed supporters who tap friends and business associates to raise money for candidates.
… Thirty-one of his bundlers collected in excess of $500,000 each in contributions, according to the campaign.