Campaign '08: The Biggest Moneybags
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The presidential fund-raising season is already well underway. The top five moneybags in both parties—and who hopes to get their checks.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Holly Bailey
Newsweek
Updated: 6:45 p.m. CT Feb 15, 2007
Peter Buttenwieser is hardly a household name, but among Democrats in Washington, he is revered as a kingmaker. By his own reckoning, Buttenwieser, a retired education consultant based in Philadelphia, has given more than $10 million of his own money to Democratic candidates and committees over the last decade, ranking him among the most generous donors in politics. He's also helped to raise tens of millions of dollars more by throwing fund-raisers and soliciting checks from others.
That generosity has made Buttenwieser a lot of friends over the years. He counts John Edwards as a close pal and is on a first-name basis with the Clintons. Not that there haven't been rough patches. Legendary Clinton fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe once called Buttenwieser a "kook" after he told reporters that the Democratic National Committee had offered him an invite to a White House luncheon with Bill Clinton in exchange for campaign cash. He turned it down. "It just didn't feel right," Buttenwieser recalled.
But those tensions were smoothed over soon enough. When McAuliffe came calling years later for a check to cover the renovation costs at the DNC headquarters, Buttenwieser, a lifelong Democrat who writes checks with no apparent agenda, ponied up more than $100,000. Ditto for Hillary Clinton's Senate campaigns, to which Buttenwieser has been a major benefactor. "I've been a big supporter of her and HillPAC [Clinton's leadership PAC]," Buttenwieser says. "She's a terrific candidate."
During the 2004 campaign, Buttenwieser was one of the only political donors who contributed to all six major Democratic candidates for president, including Edwards, Howard Dean, John Kerry, Wesley Clark, Joe Lieberman and Dick Gephardt. Four years later, his name is on the call list of every major 2008 Democratic presidential contender. But Buttenwieser has taken himself off the market. He won't be sending cash to Clinton's campaign, he says, nor will he donate to his old friend Edwards. For the first time, Buttenwieser is picking just one candidate to support: Barack Obama.
On Thursday, Buttenwieser held a 300-person fund-raiser for the Illinois senator in Philadelphia—an event he hoped would raise at least $250,000 for the Obama campaign. "I feel differently than I did in 2004, when I felt everybody should get a chance," Buttenwieser tells NEWSWEEK. "I actually feel better about our candidates this year, and I think Clinton or Edwards or Obama—if one of them gets the nomination—can win. But Obama is truly an exceptional guy. He brings a new set of qualities and sensitivities and abilities to communicate with people that I, in my lifetime, have never seen."
Buttenwieser's decision to buck Clinton and Edwards in favor of Obama shocked the world of Democratic presidential fund-raising, which, with the early kickoff of the campaign, is feverishly underway. Almost a year ago, well before she officially announced her presidential bid, Clinton held a briefing for her potential financial supporters. It's the same story for donors on the Republican side, where John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have been fighting it out for the support of George W. Bush's top donors.
The April 15 first-quarter filing deadline just over a month away, and candidates know that to be taken seriously, they need the ledgers to show that they are already amassing big bucks. The leading White House hopefuls could raise as much as $30 million apiece by then, a threshold that Bush didn't reach until the summer before the 2000 primaries.
Buttenwieser insists that his decision to back Obama didn't set off a "bargaining frenzy" among other candidates trying to change his mind. "I've made my decision , and people are, for the most part, leaving me alone," he says. But that's not the case for many of his friends who, Buttenwieser says , have been "hounded multiple times" by other candidates.
Indeed, another longtime Democratic fund-raiser, who declined to be named to avoid alienating any of the campaigns, tells NEWSWEEK that he has been contacted more than a dozen times by at least three campaigns, all urging him to sign up for their candidate. "I've never felt so much pressure, so early," the donor says.
No surprise, then, that the upper-tier candidates have already locked up some of the most prized fund-raisers. Here's a look at the top five on each side, and which candidate they'll be lavishing with cash.
Republicans
1. Bob Perry: John McCain
A megamillionaire home builder from Houston, Perry is perhaps best known as the man who fronted the cash for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the 527 committee that in 2004 attacked John Kerry's Vietnam record (527s are independent political committees named after the federal tax code under which they file). Since then, no individual GOP donor has spent more to elect Republicans. Last year, Perry donated more than $12 million to Republican candidates and GOP-leaning 527 groups. While he has not formally endorsed a candidate, Perry gave $4,200 to McCain during the last election, and his wife has announced her support for the Arizona senator.
2. T. Boone Pickens: Rudy Giuliani
Pickens is a billionaire Texas oilman who raised more than $200,000 for President Bush's re-election campaign in 2004 and gave millions of his own cash to Republican 527 committees, including $3 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Pickens endorsed Giuliani last year and sits on the former New York City mayor's national finance committee.
3. Jerrold Perenchio: John McCain
A member of McCain's national finance committee, Perenchio is the chairman of the Spanish-media conglomerate Univision and has been a major contributor to George W. Bush and the GOP. Last year, he ranked as the No. 2 donor to 527 groups, contributing $5 million to GOP group Progress for America.
4. Al Cardenas: Mitt Romney
A former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Cardenas has been a major fund-raiser for both Jeb and George W. Bush. Back in 2004, Cardenas was the first GOP donor to earn the designation "Super Ranger" from the Bush-Cheney campaign, having raised more than $300,000 for the president's re-election effort.
5. Carl Lindner: Uncommitted
A former chairman of Chiquita Brands, Lindner has long ranked as one of the most generous donors in Republican politics. He raised more than $200,000 for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 and contributed more than $1 million to the GOP and 527 groups during the last election. But he has also written checks to Democrats, including Hillary Clinton. He has yet to publicly endorse a candidate in 2008.
Democrats
1. Haim Saban: Hillary Clinton
Perhaps best known as the creator of the Power Rangers, Saban is also in the record books as having delivered the single largest political contribution in history: a $7 million check to the Democratic National Committee in 2002. Since then, he has continually ranked in the top 10 of all political donors to Washington and has been a longtime supporter of Team Hillary.
2. Stephen Bing: Hillary Clinton
Bing is perhaps best known as a source of tabloid fodder from Hollywood. He used to date Nicole Kidman and was once involved in a nasty paternity fight with Elizabeth Hurley (the battle ended amicably, with Bing agreeing to support the child). But he's also a huge political donor. Last year, he reportedly spent more than $50 million of his own money on California's Proposition 87, which would have taxed oil companies to raise money for alternative energy research. His $5 million check to the DNC in 2002 makes him the Democrats' No. 2 all-time donor. He's a close friend of Bill Clinton and is cohosting a fund-raiser for Hillary next month.
3. Fred Baron: John Edwards
One of the nation's best-known trial lawyers, Baron has resumed his duties as Edwards' s top fund-raiser. For years, Baron has ranked in the top 20 of Democratic donors every campaign cycle, and his ability to tap others in the legal profession for cash is called unprecedented. It's no wonder Hillary Clinton tried to woo Baron away. Last year, Baron attended one of the hush-hush briefings Clinton held for potential supporters—but he gave an advanced heads up to Edwards before he did so.
4. Alan Solomont: Barack Obama
As former chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton years, Solomont raised more than $50 million for Democrats and is considered one of the best-connected fund-raisers in the party. The Massachusetts investor solicited checks for Kerry in 2004 and was widely expected to sign on to the Clinton campaign this year but, in a shocking move, endorsed Obama instead.
5. George Soros: Barack Obama
A bogeyman to the right, Soros isn't a big individual contributor to political campaigns, but he has given tens of millions to Democratic 527s in recent years. The big question heading into 2008 is whether 527s will be active in the primary season, when Democrats will be duking it out over the nomination. If the primaries get dirty, 527 donors like Soros could be a wild card—especially if they run ads attacking other Democrats.
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