Berkshire Hathaway's Buffett Throws His Support to Gore's Presidential Bid
>>JC, On good trick deserves another <g>.M<<
November 2, 2000
Campaign 2000
By GLENN R. SIMPSON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- Al Gore may not be the candidate of big business, but among those with big bucks, he's doing just fine.
The Democratic presidential nominee's wealthiest supporter is investor Warren Buffett. The famed "Oracle of Omaha" confirmed his support for Mr. Gore, citing the vice president's positions on abortion rights and campaign-finance reform.
Mr. Buffett is a former Republican turned Democrat, but "he's not a party-line voter," says his daughter Suzy Buffett, who also backs Mr. Gore. She adds, "I personally think one giant issue, and I can't imagine he wouldn't agree with this, is the Supreme Court."
Mr. Buffett has recently lent his name as a sponsor to fund-raising events for Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I hear this Republican message that we're rich as hell and we're not going to take it any more," he said at an appearance at Columbia University with Mrs. Clinton in September. "That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm paying taxes at a lower rate than my secretary."
Among the richest Americans, Mr. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is far from alone in his preference for Mr. Gore. Other billionaire investors such as George Soros of Soros Fund Management and Ron Burkle, who heads Yucaipa Management, also have thrown their weight behind Mr. Gore. The vice president is also popular among a number of top investors on Wall Street, including Leon Black of Apollo Management, Lionel Pincus of Warburg Pincus Counsellors, and Thomas Lee of Thomas H. Lee Co.
Mr. Gore lags far behind Mr. Bush in support from chief executives at big industrial corporations, who appear to find him more threatening than they did Bill Clinton. A recent list of business backers of Mr. Gore doesn't include a single Fortune 500 CEO, a situation his supporters attribute to his regulatory stances and environmental rhetoric.
Among technology executives, the two candidates are competitive -- though Mr. Bush is believed to have raised slightly more money in Silicon Valley than Mr. Gore and has a somewhat higher-profile list of backers, such as Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers and Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy.
On Wall Street, Mr. Bush is the favorite. He outraised Mr. Gore more than 2-to-1, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. But his list of top backers includes only a few top New York finance executives, such as Hank Greenberg of American International Group, Donald Marron of PaineWebber Group Inc. and John Hennessy, chairman of CS First Boston's equity division.
Mr. Gore's other Wall Street supporters include Steve Rattner of the Quadrangle Group and Bob Pozen of Fidelity Investments.
-- Devon Spurgeon in Chicago contributed to this article.
Write to Glenn R. Simpson at glenn.simpson@wsj.com1
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