CAMPAIGN 2004 : THE GENERAL’S HEAVY HITTERS
Business Week
10-20-2003
Democratic Presidential candidate Wes Clark has launched a fund-raising blitz with the help of key party moneymen. Among them are:
— Eli Broad, who met the general through Clinton White House counselor Bruce Lindsey, now a Clark adviser. The philanthropist was scouting for someone to run the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Clark was a finalist. “He was very impressive,” says Broad. “He’s a centrist. He’ll have big backing from Democrats who are in business.”
— Norman Lear, who is defending Clark’s beachhead in Hollywood. Days after Clark’s entry, the longtime liberal activist wrote to 150 friends asking for donations. The result was a celebrity-studded Oct. 1 event at the producer’s home, co-hosted by TV comic Larry David. Lara Bergthold, a Lear aide and a top Hollywood fund-raiser, will be thumbing through her Rolodex for the general. Other Celebs for Clark include Bette Midler, Jerry Seinfeld, and Michael J. Fox.
— Stanley S. Shuman, executive vice-president of New York investment firm Allen & Co., who has crucial ties to Wall Street money. He and venture capitalist Alan J. Patricof, who was finance chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, plan to tap New York’s deep-pocketed business community.
“The money is coming on a very broad-based basis, quite spontaneously,” Shuman says.
