Posted by Josh Drobnyk at 6:15 am CST
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois made some new friends in the city of brotherly love last night.
Obama's presidential campaign was collecting an expected $250,000 at a 300-person fundraiser at the Sheraton Hotel in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia philanthropist Peter Buttenwieser, one of the country’s most generous Democratic moneymen, was among the organizers.
In the new "hard-money'' world of campaign financing, where individual donors are limited to giving $2,300 for a candidate's campaign, Buttenwieser is a veteran of the "soft-money'' days. He gave nearly $3 million to Democratic Party committees between 1997 and 2002, when a new campaign finance law banning soft-money donations went into effect, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The private event marked one of Obama’s first visits to Pennsylvania since he campaigned for Gov. Ed Rendell, Sen. Bob Casey and other congressional candidates in the fall.
Pennsylvania, long sought-after by presidential candidates during general elections because of its 21 electoral votes and perennial swing-state status, is expected to be largely an afterthought during the 2008 primary season because all but a handful of states hold earlier primaries.
Pennsylvania’s '08 Democratic primary is scheduled for April 1.
That doesn’t mean, however, that candidates won’t be making regular visits to the state to solicit cash. Obama and the country’s other high-profile candidates are expected to raise in the neighborhood of $50 million to $100 million this year as they gear up for the first primary in January.
Josh Drobnyk reports for the Morning Call of Allentown, Pa., a Tribune Co. newspaper.
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Comments
Well I'm sure glad that Barack "Breath of Fresh Air" Obama isn't bought and paid for... oh, wait.
Posted by: Jeff | February 16, 2007 9:51 AM
Jeff,
I'll have you know that $50 - $100 million buys a LOT of integrity!
Posted by: Muckle John | February 16, 2007 10:21 AM
Muckle John:
How much "integrity" was bought by the $200 million raised by Bush in 2004? Not much.
Posted by: BC | February 16, 2007 10:32 AM
BC
Au contraire, mon frere... It bought twice as much! You could see it in the way the President would take off his tie and roll up his sleeves at the Town Meetin's.
Posted by: Muckle John | February 16, 2007 11:03 AM
BC, I'm with ya, I've got no love for Bush, but I think the difference is the media, and to a lesser extent Obama's campaign people, have been aggressively crafting this image of him as an outsider candidate free from the taint of partisan politics. This story, and a mountain of other evidence, shows that nothing could be further from the truth. Obama's an Illinois machine politician of the highest order, completely unafraid to endorse nepotist hacks like Todd Stroger should the Daleys and Madigans tell him to, and he also has no qualms about accepting millions from special interest moneymen like Buttenwieser. Anyone who believes this load of bull deserves the government we've got right now.
Posted by: Jeff | February 16, 2007 11:24 AM
That Barack, he's a clever guy. Use the money of billionaire lobbyists to eliminate the influence of billionaire lobbyists in Washington. Clever, clever, clever. OBAMA IN 08!
Posted by: JB | February 16, 2007 3:20 PM
Jeff -
I like how you just make stuff up.
"he also has no qualms about accepting millions from special interest moneymen like Buttenwieser"
He hasn't collected millions from him. He can't collect millions from him.
300 people at a fundraiser, giving under $1,000 each, for a total of 250,000. That is what Obama was doing.
Posted by: JohnR | February 16, 2007 4:43 PM
John R,
100 million bucks ain't gonna come from little old ladies change jars.
But that's OK Barack is clean... oops!
Posted by: Muckle John | February 16, 2007 8:13 PM
John R., you must be a true believer to defend this lobbyist arrangement. The practice of accepting "bundled" checks that total more than the legal limits of single contributors at campaign fundraisers like Buttenwieser's Obama fest has been going on since the mid-90s'. Do you honestly think a man that raised $3 million for Democrat campaign committees between 1997 and 2002 is going to raise just 250 gs at this one event this campaign season? You're funny.
Tim Russert of "Meet the Press" has already reported the "campaign committee" loophole that allows these lobbyists to get around the "soft money" ban. Campaigns create an outside events committee that pays for events such as Obama's sell-out and these support committees pay for the entire cost of the fundraising event out of pocket or through a line of credit. The lobbyists then make a donation to the "events committee" (not the campaign) and the money goes to the same place. So, in short, yes, people like Buttenwieser will find a way to donate millions to their candidates in this election.
Posted by: Jeff | February 17, 2007 10:56 AM