A good place to check out donations.... also shows Hillary's Soft Money Donors, as well as other individuals and groups for all....
opensecrets.org
opensecrets.org
The Nest Egg:
Hillary Clinton's Soft Money Donors
in the New York Senate Race
After days of political posturing and wrangling over details, the campaigns for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) and Rep. Rick Lazio (R-NY) agreed last weekend to an unprecedented, yet gingerly-worded proposal to ban soft money advertising in their high-profile race for New York’s open Senate seat.
While the deal largely depends on the honor of various outside groups, it does ensure that the two candidates won’t stand to benefit this Election Day from a barrage of costly issue ads paid for by unlimited and largely unregulated sums of contributions to the national political parties.
But that doesn’t mean soft money will be a no-show in New York. Though such funds technically are supposed to finance generic "party-building" activities, such as voter registration, soft money often picks up the tab for much more, including polls, administrative costs and other behind-the-scenes expenses.
If Clinton and Lazio’s agreement should survive its various conditions and provisions, soft money still could help to finance the candidates’ ground war in the final weeks of the campaign, and that could play a major role in determining who has the financial advantage when it comes to filling retiring Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s shoes.
According to the latest Federal Election Commission filings, Lazio reports just over $10 million dollars in the bank, roughly $3 million more than Clinton’s $7 million. But the First Lady’s financial disadvantage would be erased if Democrats were able to tap the various soft money warchests Clinton has worked to accumulate over the last year, worth at least $4.4 million according to FEC reports.
The largest bulk of that cash is soft money donations to the New York Senate 2000 Committee, an account run jointly by Clinton, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the New York State Democratic Party. Because it is registered on the state level, New York Senate 2000 isn’t required to file with the FEC. In fact, the only way to track contributions to the committee is to analyze its financial transfers to a federal committee, in this case the DSCC.
Since September 1999, New York Senate 2000 has transferred roughly $4.4 million in soft money to the DSCC. It’s unclear whether that’s all the money this committee has raised to date, since transfers to the New York State Democratic Party are not filed with the FEC. What is known, however, is that of the 414 contributors disclosed on the DSCC’s filings, many are major Democratic donors who have already maxed out in what they can individually contribute to Clinton’s campaign committee.
Among the top soft money donors to New York Senate 2000: retired mutual fund magnet Jack Dreyfus, who has contributed $230,000, Sandra Wagenfeld ($108,700) and Francine Goldstein ($80,000) of Connecticut’s Aviation Tech Inc, InfoUSA chief Vinod Gupta ($100,000) and songwriter Denise Rich ($77,000). Stan Lee Media, home to the creator of Spider Man and other Marvel Comics, wrote a check for $100,000, while insurance honcho Walter Kaye, best known for pulling strings to get a White House internship for Monica Lewinsky, gave $60,000.
The biggest source of soft money contributions to New York Senate 2000 came from securities and investment interests ($414,000), TV/Movies/Music ($416,389) and computer companies ($286,000). Labor unions also have provided a significant source of funds ($233,000), with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees ($125,000) ranked No. 2 in soft money contributions to the committee.
Click here for a look at $10,000-plus soft money donors to New York Senate 2000.
MONEY IN POLITICS ALERT
September 29, 2000
Vol. 5, No. 58
Prepared by Holly Bailey
tel: 202-857-0044
fax: 202-857-7809 |
