Democratic Donors Skip Obama Dinner Seeking New Donations

President Barack Obama’s dinner
tonight with top donors resembles dozens of his campaign events,
with gourmet meals served on hotel china and a high price of
admission. Yet without the urgency of an election, many reliable
Democratic fundraisers are skipping the meal.

After underwriting the president’s re-election, some top
party donors and fundraisers are unenthused about the Obama
team’s plan to transform a campaign into a cause.

Organizing for Action, a nonprofit advocacy group founded
this year by former campaign aides, is asking donors to fund its
effort to advocate for second-term priorities. They’re trying to
whip up grassroots support for initiatives such as gun control
and an immigration law rewrite by tapping into the campaign’s
expansive e-mail list and social media brand.

“I’m just not ready to start writing checks; it’s only 60
days since President Obama got sworn in,” said Mel Heifetz, a
Philadelphia real-estate investor and gay-rights activist, who
gave $1 million last year to a super-political action committee
that worked to help re-elect Obama.

Other major super-PAC donors sitting out at least the
initial OFA push include Steve Mostyn, a Texas trial lawyer who
gave more than $3 million, and Irwin Jacobs, a California
technology entrepreneur, who contributed $2 million. Head of
Chicago-based Ariel Investments LLC John Rogers Jr. and former
UBS Americas Chairman Robert Wolf, Obama backers who raised
millions for his campaigns, don’t plan to attend, either.

Early Complaints

The response illustrates the challenge of turning Obama’s
electoral victory machine into a durable political force. During
its first-term iteration, as Organizing for America, fellow
Democrats grumbled that the group was alienating factions of the
party as it pushed the health-care law.

The revamped OFA is already facing criticism. Democracy 21
and other Washington-based government watchdog groups have
accused it of selling access to the president, saying the
group’s structure marks another move away from the campaign
finance rules Obama once supported. Obama has reversed course on
other promises to limit the influence of big donors, including
condoning a campaign super-PAC started by former aides that
accepted unlimited contributions and allowing corporate
donations to pay for his second inauguration.

OFA doesn’t legally have to disclose its donors. The group
will periodically share its contributors’ names, said OFA
Chairman Jim Messina, who managed Obama’s 2012 campaign; it has
yet to do so. Other voluntary concessions: Messina said the
group won’t accept corporate or lobbyist money and will steer
clear of electoral politics.

Buying Influence

“The unlimited amounts provided to OFA create
opportunities for individual donors and bundlers to buy
corrupting influence over the Obama administration’s policies
and decisions,” Democracy 21 president Fred Wertheimer said in
a statement.

White House spokesman Jay Carney called accusations that
the president was selling access to a special interest group
“absurd and wrong.”

An invitation to the two-day summit shared by a donor with
Bloomberg listed a $50,000 price tag for the event at the St.
Regis hotel, two blocks from the White House. Some participants
said they will be attending for free as a way to become more
familiar with the group. About 100 people are expected to attend
the event.

Katie Hogan, a spokeswoman for the group, declined to
discuss the specifics of fundraising or give details about the
summit.

At the event, attendees will receive briefings by some of
Obama’s top former aides, including Messina, former White House
senior adviser David Plouffe, and Jon Carson, the group’s
executive director. The highlight is the dinner, where Obama
will mingle with attendees.

Hollywood Support

Among those planning to attend is Andy Spahn, political
consultant to Obama supporter and head of DreamWorks Animation
SKG Inc. (DWA)
Jeffrey Katzenberg, his spokesman said. San Antonio
businessman Henry Munoz, whose work helping to raise millions
for Obama led to a job as finance chairman of the Democratic
National Committee
, is also expected to step into the event.

Orin Kramer, general partner at Boston Provident Partners,
LP, is supporting the group, though won’t be attending the
summit, he said in an e-mail to Bloomberg.

In private meetings and phone calls, Messina and Carson
have been reaching out to campaign donors to sell them on the
new organization, which will be based in Chicago with an office
in Washington. Their requests come as some fundraisers angle for
administration appointments to ambassadorships and other
positions.

Grassroots Appeal

OFA also seeks to harness the Obama campaign’s grassroots
fundraising prowess and is including a link to a donations page
each time it sends a message to the millions of people on its e-
mail list.

Democratic donors say the new group may face practical
challenges, stressing the difficulty of raising money for a
cause rather than a candidate.

“Most of the people that I hit up for the campaign did it
because they did not want to run the risk of Romney getting
elected,” said Manuel Sanchez, a Chicago lawyer who helped
bring in millions for the campaign through his outreach to the
Latino community. “Now you’re talking about purely policy, and
frankly it doesn’t have the same pizazz.”

OFA now runs Obama’s Facebook page, “liked” by 35 million
users, and his @barackobama Twitter handle, which with 28
million followers is one of the most popular in the world.

In one of its first actions, on Feb. 22, OFA asked
supporters to call and send Twitter messages to Congress in
support of Obama’s gun-control plan.

Leasing E-Mail

The group also is leasing Obama’s e-mail. A message sent
yesterday requested that recipients use Facebook to share a
graphic showing newspaper headlines about the local impact of
federal budget reductions with the caption: “Severe budget cuts
are hurting communities around the country. Tell Congress it’s
time to act.” More than 5,000 people shared the graphic, and
another 68,000 “liked” it.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said OFA’s work will compliment the party organization
by keeping volunteers engaged between elections.

“The DNC couldn’t be more relevant; I actually am really
glad OFA has decided to stay active,” Wasserman Schultz said in
an interview on MSNBC yesterday.

The president plans to headline at least 14 fundraisers for
Democratic candidates this year, according to officials, events
that may have more appeal to his supporters.

“Politics has its seasons,” said Heifetz, the Democratic
and gay-rights donor who is skipping the OFA event. “The next
thing that is coming up is primaries, and that’s when I start
thinking of backing someone again.”

To contact the reporters on this story:
Lisa Lerer in Washington at
llerer@bloomberg.net;
Julie Bykowicz in Washington at
jbykowicz@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jeanne Cummings at
jcummings21@bloomberg.net

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