The Obama campaign released its list of 244 individuals or couples who raised “bundled” donations of $50,000 or more from their network of contacts, and the president has friends in some pretty high places.
Among the donors to the Obama reelection campaign: Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour, and former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine all raised more than half a million dollars. National Journal reports Katzenberg and Wintour each raised more than $500,000 for the president in 2008. (Nearly half of Newt Gingrich’s campaign debt is from private airplanes)
The three join 20 other couples and individuals with less recognizable names in the same fundraising category.
In a lower bracket of donors who raised between $50,000 and $100,000 is Ari Emanuel, a Los Angeles talent agent and the brother of Obama’s former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, now mayor of Chicago.
Most of the donations come from the Los Angeles and New York areas. National Journal says that’s likely because of Obama’s fundraising efforts in the two cities. During the last fundraising quarters, Obama made a number of trips to appear at DNC events in those areas.
Though the law doesn’t require the release of bundled donation lists, the Obama campaign posted it online to put pressure on the current crop of GOP donors. Ben LaBolt, the campaign’s press secretary, tweeted Friday: “President Bush disclosed his bundlers. Will the current GOP field follow suit? What do they have to hide?”
The campaign’s fundraising numbers are impressive. The campaign announced this week it had raised $47 million this quarter on its own, and $86 million when DNC numbers are factored in. The leading Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, raised $18 million.