Day: May 22, 2012

This Smells Bad: Booker Took Campaign Money from Romney’s Company

Trish

For those trying to understand Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s tortured stance on whatever exactly he was trying to say that Pres. Obama should do in his campaign to defeat Mitt Romney, this sheds quite a bit of light.

Bain Capital was among Booker’s earliest and most generous backers

A ThinkProgress examination of New Jersey campaign finance records for Booker’s first run for Mayor — back in 2002 — suggests a possible reason for his unease with attacks on Bain Capital and venture capital. They were among his earliest and most generous backers.

Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) — all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.

He and his slate also jointly raised funds for the “Booker Team for Newark” joint committee. They received more than $450,000 for the 2002 campaign from the sector — including a pair of $15,400 contributions from Bain Capital Managing Directors Joshua Bekenstein and Mark Nunnelly. It appears that for the initial campaign and runoff, the slate raised less than $4 million — again making this a sizable chunk.

In all — just in his first Mayoral run — Booker’s committees received more than $565,000 from the people he was defending. At least $36,000 of that came from folks at Romney’s old firm.

Obama is the First Billion-Dollar Politician

Buck Banks

$1 billion+

Amount President Obama has received in donations during his political career to become the first political $1 billion man, according to The Daily Caller. “His total take reached $1,017,892,305 in April, some nine years after he began his 2004 race for the Senate. Obama is widely expected to raise at least $300 million more before November.”

Candidate Obama Comes Out Swinging

Buck Banks

If your main argument for how to grow the economy is I knew how to make a lot of money for investors, then you’re missing what this job is about. It doesn’t mean you weren’t good at private equity, but that’s not what my job is as president. My job is to take into account everybody, not just some. My job is to make sure that the country is growing not just now, but 10 years from now and 20 years from now.

— President Obama, delivering his most personal attack yet on putative presidential rival Mitt Romney over his claims that his experience at Bain Capital qualifies him for the presidency.