Wall Street bigs snubbed President Obama last night at a big-bucks campaign fund-raiser at The St. Regis hotel in Midtown.
The gala -- where tickets went for as much as $50,000 a couple and whose proceeds were going to Democratic candidates -- featured stars such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Democratic Party regulars but few, if any, executives from the city's leading financial institutions.
That was no accident, according to Democrats on Capitol Hill and Wall Street sources who say those in the financial industry are tired of being the punching bag for Obama and Democrats crafting legislation to tightly regulate them.
"They may support individuals, but not the party," one House Democratic lawmaker said.
"I think there's been some pushback from the [financial] community."
Other Democrats said that, indeed, Wall Street money has dried up for the party, and an official from one of the major investment firms confirmed that its people were staying away from The St. Regis.
"We won't be attending," the official said.
While the event drew executives from a number of private-equity firms, leaders from big outfits like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan were nowhere to be found.
"I would recognize a lot of them, but I didn't see any," Rep. Ed Towns (D-Brooklyn) said afterward. Said another attendee: "I didn't see anyone from the big firms. I did see some folks from sort of some mid-level-range hedge funds."
Speaking at the event, which Democratic officials said raised $1.3 million from 185 donors, Obama reiterated his call for reforms of Wall Street.
"There are a lot of good people who work in the financial industry who do things the right way," the president said.
"But when these institutions operate irresponsibly, they don't just threaten themselves, they threaten the entire economy. We need reform to ensure they operate in an honest, fair and open way."
The line drew no reaction from the crowd.
churt@nypost.com
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