President Obama’s second-term nominees for foreign ambassadorships raised more than $16 million for his presidential campaigns and inaugurations.
Obama has nominated 24 campaign bundlers that have raised at least $16.6 million for his presidential efforts, according to a database created by the Center for Public Integrity.
Eight six-figure Obama bundlers have already been confirmed to key posts including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Italy.
Obama’s confirmed ambassador to Belgium, Denise Campbell Bauer, served as 2012 finance chair of Women for Obama and raised more than $750,000 for his campaigns and first inauguration.
Fifteen major Obama bundlers are still awaiting confirmation to ambassadorships, including former Barclays director Mark D. Gilbert, who raised at least $1.2 million for Obama’s efforts and is now up for ambassador to New Zealand.
Obama’s latest pick for ambassador to Hungary, Colleen Bradley Bell, is a producer on her executive producer husband’s soap opera, “The Bold and the Beautiful,” and a 2012 campaign bundler to the tune of more than $500,000. Bell — who was born in Illinois, went to Sweet Briar College in Virginia, studied abroad in Scotland, and lives in Los Angeles — was in the running for either Hungary or Belgium.
Fellow Hollywood executive James Costos, the vice president of HBO, was recently confirmed as ambassador to Spain after bundling at least $500,000 for Obama’s re-election campaign.
The figures cited in this piece refer only to Obama’s second-term ambassador nominees, and do not include the Obama bundlers and donors who comprised many of his first-term ambassador nominations.