Politics

“Green” stimulus beneficiary hosts Tuesday $25,000-per-plate fundraiser for Obama

J. Arthur Bloom Deputy Editor
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On a brief campaign jaunt to St. Louis, President Obama appeared Tuesday night at a $25,000-per-plate fundraising event hosted by an influential Democrat whose green energy firm benefited from a $107 million federal tax credit under the president’s economic stimulus plan. Tom Carnahan’s company, Wind Development Group received the money to develop wind power in Missouri.

Carnahan is a member of the influential Missouri political family that includes Rep. Russ Carnahan and Missouri’s Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.

Inside the fundraiser, about 45 well-heeled Obama supporters gathered to listen to the president speak in front of a grand fireplace, Business Insider reports. “I know you guys have a little pull with at least one congressman named Carnahan,” the President reportedly told his host.

Politico reported Missouri Republican Party executive director Lloyd Smith’s complaint about the ethics conflict of Obama raising money from donors who have received stimulus funds. “[A]t a time when Barack Obama is under fire for steering hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus funds to a failed company linked to a major campaign donor,” Smith said, “it is stunning that he would come to Missouri and raise money with another recipient of stimulus cash.”

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Carnahan helped bundle between $100,000 and $200,000 for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Tea party activists met the president outside the Carnahan home but were held back by a police barrier.

The poolside bar served the President’s signature tipple, Schlafly’s “Baracktoberfest” lager. The brewer advertises that the beer has “a distinctly hopeful aftertaste.”