Kerry leads Democrats in Calif. gold rush
By Glen Johnson
Boston Globe Staff
3/2/2003
SAN FRANCISCO -- Like a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Senator John F. Kerry came to the offices of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners a couple of years ago seeking money to help finance a dream.
It turns out the Massachusetts Democrat hit pay dirt amid the frosted glass, wide-pine floors, and exposed beams of the former warehouse that houses a venture capital firm with more than $1 billion invested in high-tech businesses.
With Hummer Winblad partner Mark Gorenberg serving as his rainmaker, Kerry went on to raise $100,000 from people directly connected to the company. He also tapped into a lucrative network of financial supporters that extends across Northern California, from the skyscrapers in San Francisco's banking district to the chief executive's suite at such familiar Silicon Valley names as Google Inc. and Symantec Corp.
Kerry raised $1.5 million in California during the past two years, much of it in chunks no larger than $2,000. In less than two weeks, the inaugural northern California fund-raiser for his presidential campaign will have at least 86 hosts, each of whom is expected to tap a network of friends to raise $10,000 or more for Kerry. Similar events have been or will be held in 14 other cities across the country.
Kerry is not alone in his effort. Over the past two months, nearly all of the Democratic presidential contenders have traveled to California.
Last week, as Kerry spent two days raising money in Los Angeles, Anaheim, and San Diego, Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri spent a day and a half doing the same in the San Francisco Bay area. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina also had events in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and, last night, San Francisco.
The intensity of California fund-raising highlights an early battle between an unusually large field of at least nine candidates for the resources needed to sustain their campaigns. Like prospectors heading west during the Gold Rush of 1849, each is hoping to strike it rich in California.
As Gorenberg raises money for Kerry in northern California, so will Sandy Robertson for Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut. Founder of Robertson, Stephens & Co., the bank that financed much of Silicon Valley's initial development, Robertson has held several dinners at his home attended by people asked to donate at least $1,000 for Lieberman's campaign.
Likewise, Joseph W. Cotchett is helping Edwards. Dubbed ''one of the nation's best trial lawyers'' by the National Law Journal, Cotchett held a fund-raising dinner for Edwards, a former trial lawyer, at his own home last night.
Southern California is a different story, and within that region, Hollywood is a tale unto itself.
Political donations from the entertainment industry have more than tripled in the last decade, from $14.1 million in 1992 to $46.1 million in 2002, according to a recent analysis performed for the Los Angeles Times.
Of the 2002 total, 83 percent went to Democrats, highlighting the industry's liberal tilt and its affinity for former president Bill Clinton, who all but made California a second home during his eight years in office.
Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, startled his rivals two weeks ago when actor and director Rob Reiner announced he would support Dean's presidential campaign. Reiner was one of Al Gore's most loyal backers during the 2000 election, and many entertainers take their political cues from Reiner.
Dean's candidacy has also been endorsed by ''West Wing'' celebrity Martin Sheen, who is expected to help raise money for the former governor.
Gephardt, meanwhile, is being supported by Bill Wardlaw, a Los Angeles investment banker who was California chairman of Clinton's 1992 and 1996 campaigns. Another backer is Marvin Davis, a billionaire oil man and Hollywood activist.
The other Democrats who have filed papers to enter the presidential race -- the Rev. Al Sharpton, a New York civil rights activist, former senator Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, and Senator Bob Graham of Florida -- have yet to file federal campaign finance disclosure forms for their presidential committees.
The current fund-raising period ends on March 31. By April 15, reports detailing candidate fund-raising and spending have to be filed with the Federal Election Commission.
That will provide the public and campaigns with the first true comparison of the candidates' fund-raising prowess. Analysts say it is no surprise that California is on everyone's early travel itinerary.
''If you look back at the last few presidential campaigns, it's always been a great source of revenue for all the candidates,'' said Robert A. Farmer, Kerry's finance chairman and past fund-raiser for the presidential campaigns of John Anderson, an Independent, and Democrats John Glenn, Michael S. Dukakis, and Clinton. ''It's well worthwhile cultivating, and, obviously, it has an important political impact as well.''
The candidates say they are now picking the low-hanging fruit, taking in money from their natural constituencies, such as lawyers for Edwards and fellow Jews for Lieberman.
All believe that major Democratic donors in California -- including SunAmerica Inc. chairman Eli Broad, grocer Ron Burkle, TV programming executive Haim Sabin, and Hollywood luminaries Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen -- will make their decision about whom to support after getting a better sense of the candidates' strength.
''This is the early stage of the presidential campaign season where the candidates are focused on the quiet, behind-the-scenes steps that prove important in the long run, and that includes fundraising, hiring staff, and locking down supporters,'' said Lieberman spokesman Jano Cabrera.
Kerry's campaign provides something of a model of how most of the candidates are proceeding. Kerry has been a familiar face in California since the late 1960s, when he trained in San Francisco and San Diego for his two Navy combat tours in Vietnam.
He cemented his ties during the 1988 election cycle, when he flew up and down the state as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which aids Senate candidates.
Gorenberg, who sits on the board of directors at MIT, met Kerry during the summer of 2000, when the senator came to New Hampshire to campaign for Gore, then the Democrats' presidential nominee.
''I got to hear him and I thought he did a better job of presenting a case for Gore than Gore did for himself,'' Gorenberg said as he sat in his office, his computer chiming out e-mail arrivals and his cellphone ringing in the corner.
Gorenberg arranged the meeting with his Hummer Winblad partners, and introduced Kerry to Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, a leading Internet search engine.
Last fall Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, gave Kerry's so-called leadership political action committee, the Citizen Soldier Fund, $25,000 in a single check.
Kerry also met John Thompson, chief executive of Symantec, which makes antivirus and Internet security software.
Not only did Thompson donate to Kerry -- $10,000 alone to Citizen Soldier -- but he and his wife, Sandy, an Iowa native, did something at least as valuable: They hosted a fund-raiser at Kerry's request for Iowa's governor Tom Vilsack, who was up for reelection last fall.
Thompsons and Schmidts are among those cosponsoring a March 13 fund-raiser for Kerry at San Francisco's Palace Hotel.
''It's a question of networking,'' Kerry said last week. He said the question confronting candidates is, ''Who's the convener?' ''
Kerry has accelerated his efforts in California by deploying one of his best fund-raisers, Dan Burrell, to an office in Los Angeles. His stepson, Christopher Heinz, also plans to leave his venture capital job to raise money for Kerry in New York, California, and elsewhere around the country.
Last week, Kerry scored something of a coup when Dick Ziman, a real estate magnate and major Gore sponsor, held a fund-raiser for him at his $20 million Beverly Hills home. Among those in the audience was Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor, who teaches during the winter at the University of California, Los Angles.
Several hours later, Kerry was at the Beverly Hills home of Kenneth ''Babyface'' Edmonds, a Grammy-winning record producer, for an event before a largely black audience.
The senator's efforts have not gone without notice. Robertson, the Lieberman fund-raiser, said of Kerry, ''He has come on pretty strong, trying to twist arms on people here, and, I think, turned some people off. On the other hand, I think he has a lot of friends, too.''
Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. |
