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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: In Clinton's Backyard, It's Open Season as an Obama Fund-Raiser Lines Up Donors Twenty-eight stories above Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, Jeh Johnson was dialing away. The race was on for New York's prized political donors, and Mr. Johnson, one of Senator Barack Obama's leading fund-raisers in the city, was trying to poach in the heart of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's financial territory. Before the day was up, Mr. Johnson got about a dozen people on the phone with the pitch that Mr. Obama represented ''a generational shift'' away from the partisan chokehold gripping Washington. A few told him they were not ready to give, but more than half said they were willing to sign checks and come to a March 9 fund-raiser at the Grand Hyatt New York. He called Joyce Johnson, a family friend (she was once his baby sitter) who lives on the Upper West Side and who has run unsuccessfully for State Assembly and the City Council over the past few years. She said she was on board with Mr. Obama's campaign, with some trepidation. ''A lot of the women who supported me are supporting Hillary,'' Ms. Johnson said. She named a West Side activist who has, in the past, raised money for Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York. ''Ricki Lieberman is like my godmother,'' Ms. Johnson said, ''And she's going with Hillary and I'm going the other way. Keep talking to me, Jeh. Give me some sea legs. Tell me what to say.'' Mr. Johnson, whose name is pronounced jay, leaned back in his chair and said: ''Joyce, we had 30 or 40 people here in my office last night for a preliminary meeting on this, and another 30 on the phone. One thing you learn quickly is that when the name Barack Obama is involved, you always have more people show up than you expected.'' Mr. Johnson, a lawyer at Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison, is a linchpin in uphill efforts to build a donor base for Mr. Obama in New York, where many potential supporters have at some time in the last 16 years aided the Clintons. Mr. Obama's ability to raise significant amounts of money depends on the success that people like Mr. Johnson have among New York's all-important Democratic fund-raising circles, which the Clinton camp has moved aggressively to corral by battling any perception that elements of the party are drifting away. And part of Mr. Johnson's pitch must be that by contributing to the Obama campaign, Democrats are not showing disloyalty to the Clintons, a fear that can be heard in his conversations with donors. ''Look, if it doesn't work out, then hopefully the nominee will get over it,'' he told one donor in discussing the possibility of a Clinton victory and its ramifications for the Obama camp. ''She'll need all the help she can get, particularly from the people associated with his campaign.'' The Clintons have dominated the fund-raising race for Democratic-party money in New York since long before Mrs. Clinton held office in the state, Mr. Johnson said. ''She and her husband have been working New York for 16 years and they know where they are,'' he added. ''But I think we're going to surprise a lot of people with who signs up.'' The Obama campaign has already attracted a number of fund-raisers with ties to Mrs. Clinton or her husband, like Orin Kramer, a prominent hedge fund manager from New Jersey, and James S. Rubin, a private equity manager and son of Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury secretary. The younger Mr. Rubin was also a finance director for New York during President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, and held positions at the Federal Communications Commission during the second Clinton administration. Other former Clintonites who are raising money for Mr. Obama include Joshua L. Steiner, a private equity principal; Michael Froman, a Citigroup executive; and Brian Mathis of Provident Group. All of them are young (in their 40s) and served in senior positions in Mr. Clinton's Treasury Department a decade ago (Mr. Froman and Mr. Mathis were friends with Mr. Obama at Harvard Law School). Another high-profile Obama fund-raiser is Earl G. Graves, the publisher of Black Enterprise magazine, who in 2000 was listed by the White House as an overnight guest of the Clintons. Poster Comment: This article is from Feb 2007. On another thread, I was questioning who is the money behind Obama. This article answers that question.
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