Obama's moneymen work on Clinton's top donors in Chicago

Already wallowing in money, and thus having decided he can afford to break his promise to take public funds for this fall's presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama's aides were huddled in Chicago today with some of the top fundraisers for what's-her-name, the New York senator who came oh-so-close to winning the Democratic nod herself.

Obama made the announcement this morning in a video sent to supporters. It makes him the first major party candidate in some 30 years to forgo public funds for the campaign period between his convention (in late August) and the November election (Nov. 4).

A half-dozen of Hillary Clinton's major contributors, each of them a convert to Obama's cause at her urging, met in the Palmer House in Chicago's Loop today, carefully tracked by The Times' campaign finance guru, Dan Morain. As a bonus gift, the candidate himself showed up for some brief remarks.

Some of those in attendance were John B. Emerson of Capital Guardian Trust Company in Los Angeles, Thomas F. Steyer of Farallon Capital Management in San Francisco and Gary Gensler, who was Treasury undersecretary under President Clinton.

Also attendance were Maureen White, formerly the top fund-raiser for the Democratic National Committee, and Michael Coles, who ran for the U.S. Senate from Georgia and is chief executive officer of Caribou Coffee.

Sen. Clinton, meanwhile, has called on 100 of her top bundlers of campaign contributions to meet with her and Obama on June 26 next week at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.

It’s part of a precise political minuet, in which Clinton seeks to demonstrate to Obama and the party faithful that she is working on behalf of the Illinois senator's campaign to help Democrats, and Obama is simultaneously trying to woo Clinton’s core backers, some of whom still hold hard feelings about the loss by the first serious female candidate for the White House.

In fact, as Morain found out, not all of her supporters are going along with the Obama campaign.

"I have talked to Hillary three times since the Montana election," said Texas attorney Garry Mauro, a long-time friend of the Clintons, who will be attending the capital gathering. "She is totally upbeat. She says our No. 1 objective is to beat John McCain. There is no feeling sorry. There is no second-guessing."

But Morain has discovered not all Clinton donors have found it so easy to change political allegiances this quickly or easily. And they intend to skip the event, the first time the new Democratic champion and the woman he vanquished will appear together in public since Clinton surrendered in a speech to her supporters nearly two weeks ago.

In an e-mail exchange, Hollywood billionaire investor Haim Saban, who heads the Spanish language Univision network and has been a long-time, big-time supporter of Clinton's (see photo), was asked if he would be traveling to Washington for the event next week.

His terse reply: "No."

-- Andrew Malcolm

Photo Credit: Newsday

Comments

[Everest]

I respect Sen. Clinton's full support of the democratic nominee. She is graceful. She is magnanimous. She is loyal. I expected nothing less from Sen. Clinton. However, I also hold in high regard her supporters such as Mr. Haim Saban, who will not follow her there. Many of us Clinton supporters are critical thinking, independent types. That's why we thought she was most qualified to be president. We still do. In her absence, we still want to vote (or not vote) with our conscience in tact. Hopefully, Sen. Obama will prove to be more magnanimous and respectful toward Sen. Clinton, not just in words, but also in action. As for myself, I wondered why he was so set on sending a signal out this week with his VP chief of staff apptmt. that Sen. Clinton has no chance of being VP?

[R.E. Hardy]

Well, BAD REPORTING, you did not read the form he filled out COMPLETELY, Obama DID NOT promise to take Public Funds, he said he would CONSIDER IT, if the presumptive Republican Nominee would, will he finally gave up on them and decided not to do so.

So get your Head Lines Straight. You can search Google and see a copy of the original form he check and filled out and wrote on.

Do a little research instead of reporting BS.

[Ram]

Wow, I guess this is what wooing Hillary Clinton's supporters mean. Forget the grassroots, woo the bundlers

[C O'Hora]

We women have heard his pick up lines before. Just another man lying to women to get what he wants and then walking away.

He won't respect us in the morning, either. He'll be sneaking away just as "the dawn early light" begins to illuminate his perfidy.

This woman has learned and won't be s*****d again.

[Eliz NY]

Good for Haim Saban and every other supporter that will be LOYAL to HRC. It's about time the more prominent and public Clinton supporters and donors showed some spine and value of loyalty. May this be a lesson to the self-serving, shallow turncoats and judas' (Like the DNC, Richardson & others) that have bitten the hand that fed them.
B.O. is finished and will not be elected. As time goes on he shows his real stripes....time will tell. We HRC supporters will watch quietly as it all unfolds. With no HRC to pick on in this race any longer the media can't overlook all of B.O.'s faults. Wait until the Republicans pounce! It will be GREAT!

[Pat Buchanan]

I'm sure Haim Saban's money will now go to John McCain. Saban, in a 2004 New York Times interview, ascribed his interest in politics to his concern for Israel: "I'm a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel." John McCain is as Pro-Israel as any candidate can get. That's why Joseph Lieberman is riding shotgun for McCain. He too is a one-issue guy, whose only true concern is Israel.

[J]

You must check your facts Micheal Coles no longer works for Caribou Coffee.....

[Arlene Russell]

I can't help but feel the same as Haim Saban...Brach Obama does not hold a candle to Hillary Clinton. As a
life long Democrat who serves on my county Democratic
Committee, I feel the party and Democratic Congress members pushed Obama down my throat. I am no sheep and I will not fall in line.
Arlene Russell

[shirlin]

The Dems who will not support Senator Obama and who will vote for John McSame are clearly not Dems and show appalilng disrespect for our beloved nation. The US is suffering after 8 years of the most inept and corrupt Republican rule. A third Bush term is NOT what our children and grandchildren and the planet need. Senator Obama won the nomination FAIR AND SQUARE, with the enthusiastic support of millions of citizens, including voters in caucus states. Please, people, come together, let us love one another, right now.

[what?]

No one is under any obligation to support Obama just because they supported clinton. I wonder, however, how all the people on this list who love(d) clinton so much can square their hatred of obama with the fact that she is now working to get him elected? If you don't think she truly believes in electing obama president you must think she is some sort of duplicitous two faced liar who will say or do anything and is only concerned about her own political fortune? Or do you now hate the person you once supported for being truthful, honest, and worthy of your loyalty for so long?
Which is it? Do you now hate hillary or you think hillary is engaged in some sort of massive fraud?

Given how little difference there is in their policy goals I can only say as someone who lost a very close friend in Iraq, if you were a hillary supporter now wishing for obama's defeat, I am glad to know you will be enlisting you or your children for military service in iraq.

[BuddhistObamafan]

At first I was against Hillary as VP. But now that the 'mud slinging' is over with and we can relax, I am all for it, they would make a strong team. Obama has heart, courage and a brain, he is almost too damn good for America, let's hope we have the brains ourselves to vote right this time.