At Cuomo Fundraiser in the Hamptons: Sea Air, Canapés and a Protest Governor has become primary target of group called the Hedge Clippers
Daniel Loeb, a top hedge-fund manager based in New York City, is hosting a $5,000-a-person East Hampton fundraiser for Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Photo: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
By
Mike Vilensky and
Mike Vilensky
The Wall Street Journal
July 10, 2015 8:21 p.m. ET
Busloads of labor activists and liberal operatives are headed Saturday to a place where they won’t be welcome: A fundraiser for Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a sprawling estate in the Hamptons.
Mr. Cuomo has become the primary target of the group calling itself the Hedge Clippers that protests the governor’s policies and his ties to the wealthy.
Their rise comes as Mr. Cuomo contends with a growing rift within the Democratic Party between his centrist approach and the liberal base, much of which doesn’t like his cultivation of support from Republicans and many in business.
The target of the Hedge Clippers this weekend is a $5,000-a-person East Hampton event in honor of the governor hosted by Daniel Loeb, a top hedge-fund manager based in New York City. Mr. Loeb is also a political fundraiser who, like Mr. Cuomo, has sparred with teachers unions and championed charter schools.
The showdown has tony communities in the Hamptons slightly amused and slightly on edge.
“Dan Loeb is thick-skinned and relishes a fight,” said Euan Rellie, an investment banker who summers in the Hamptons and is a friend of Mr. Loeb’s. “But no successful business person wants to be seen as a remote billionaire living with pitchforks at the hedges. Who would want that?”
The activists plan to fly aerial banners over the grounds of the Loeb mansion as Mr. Cuomo’s donors nibble canapés and sip cocktails on the lawn.
To be sure, Mr. Cuomo is hardly the only politician to be met with protesters at some of his events. But the Hedge Clippers are trained largely on one politician, and their pockets are deep.
Funded by the American Federation of Teachers, the group has been galvanizing liberal activists in Albany, Washington, D.C., and New York City since February.
“The larger point is the governor of New York should listen to everybody, not just the billionaires in the Hamptons,” said Michael Kink, a former state Senate aide who now runs a union-backed activist group and said he planned to attend the protest.
Multiple hedge-fund managers who declined to speak for attribution said they appreciated Mr. Cuomo’s opposition to new taxes and saw him as a politician interested in compromise.
They said they believed that charter schools were a better alternative to some of the city’s troubled schools. Many hedge funders identify as libertarians, said people in their industry, and don’t support a particular party.
Mr. Loeb was among a group of hedge-fund managers who helped raise money in support of same-sex marriage, which Mr. Cuomo signed into law in 2011.
He is chairman of a charter-school network that has been allied with Mr. Cuomo. The governor has supported raising the cap on charters, which are paid for with public money but operated privately, and angered teachers unions in the process.
Even those within the financial world, however, said they could see why Mr. Cuomo’s mingling amid society’s upper echelons could hurt him while much of his party focuses closely on the needs of low-income people.
“He’s been very successful fundraising on the backs of his supporters,” said Mr. Rellie, “but it’s a delicate thing.”
A spokesman for the governor said: “The governor’s progressive accomplishments are nationally recognized and stand on their own. This is just some more performance art from the same paid political advocates under a different name.”
Mr. Cuomo has raised tens of million of dollars from leaders in finance, real estate, and entertainment. His donors include filmmaker Steven Spielberg, hedge-fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller, and former Morgan Stanley chief John Mack.
Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University professor who lost a primary campaign against Mr. Cuomo last year, said the issue of “private money versus public money” was also at play.
Democratic lawmakers have sought to establish a statewide system for publicly financed campaigns similar to New York City’s, but that hasn’t come to fruition under Mr. Cuomo’s watch.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a darling of many of Mr. Cuomo’s more liberal detractors, financed his mayoral race partly through the city’s publicly funded campaign-finance system.
John Coffee, a professor at Columbia University and expert on hedge funds, said the teachers’ unions may be capitalizing on the bad reputations of some who operate within the hedge fund industry.
“You want to choose the most attractive enemy you can find,” Mr. Coffee said. “Coming out against hedge funds is like being opposed to Donald Trump and singling him out as a symbol for all Republicans.”
Mr. Coffee said the thinking behind hedge-fund industry figures who donate to Mr. Cuomo wasn’t complicated: “You want influential people to be on your side.”
Write to Mike Vilensky at mike.vilensky@dowjones.com |
