Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)

Political Money

A correspondent writes, apropos of the Wall Street Journal:

I interpret yesterday's [July 28] Kerry story, when combined with today's [July 29] Corzine story, to be saying, "look you affluent people reading this, you may have your issues w/ the Dems . . . but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD send this man money; send him money or we could all be doomed!"

Here are selections from the Corzine story:

WSJ.com - Democrats Tap a Rich Lode: Young, Well-Off Social Liberals: By SHAILAGH MURRAY and JEANNE CUMMINGS Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL July 29, 2004; Page A1

BOSTON -- Eric Greenberg, who made a fortune founding Internet companies... a "centrist, moderate Republican."... supported President Bush in 2000 and raised $100,000 for Republicans... the administration alienated him by restricting stem-cell research.... Sen. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, quickly got in touch with Mr. Greenberg to hit him up for funds and get him to raise money from his friends....

Mr. Corzine's committee, which was $6.5 million in the red two years ago, has pulled in $49 million in this election cycle. That's just $1 million shy of the amount raised by the Republicans' equivalent group... far deeper reservoirs of Democratic money than they imagined. The economic boom of the 1990s put enormous sums, very quickly, in the pockets of some younger economic players who turned out to be socially liberal. This new generation of wealth -- men and women who grew up with working moms, black classmates and gay friends, during the rise of environmentalism -- is defying the traditional notion that as people swim up the income scale, they tend to become more Republican....

This year, a potent alignment of forces has set off a new gusher of money for Democrats. Anger at President Bush and some of his policies has aroused some wealthy Americans who in the past were politically ambivalent. Mr. Bush -- by stoking his party's religious-right base on issues like gay marriage, stem-cell research and abortion -- has pushed toward the Democrats some well-heeled people who share a more Republican aversion to high taxes and regulation.... In the Senate, the Democrats are benefiting from the role of Mr. Corzine, an Illinois farm boy turned Wall Street power broker. Mr. Corzine, 57 years old, retired from Goldman Sachs in May 1999 after a management shakeup, walking away with a $300 million windfall from the bank's initial public offering. After using $63 million of that to win himself a Senate seat from New Jersey, he worried that his investment would be for naught if Democrats stayed in the minority for years. He decided to put his financial savvy to work getting more of them elected....

Mr. Corzine saw his wealthy Senate colleagues as possible donors and pushed some to part with surpluses in their campaign chests. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California has an easy re-election race this year. She gave up $100,000 and helped raise an additional $1.6 million for the Senate committee, which uses the money for ads or get-out-the-vote efforts. Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana, who is retiring, parted with $100,000....

During the Reagan administration, when Mr. Greenberg was in his late teens and 20s, he identified more closely with the Republican Party, considering it the party of progress and opportunity. He recalls former House Speaker Newt Gingrich telling him in 1998 it was his civic duty to educate lawmakers on the technological advances going on, "or they're going to legislate you out of business." He backed the Republican ticket in 2000. But he heard echoes of Mr. Gingrich's warning when Mr. Bush, as president, restricted stem-cell research. He also came to believe the Republicans were no longer the entrepreneur's best ally. Mr. Greenberg, who grew up poor in Las Vegas, is disturbed by the class divide. "I'm not for progressive taxation or socialism or anything like that," he says. "I'm a capitalist. But just because you're successful in business doesn't mean you can't have a heart. I feel like it's my responsibility to give back and to help others, and that's not where the right wing of the Republican Party is."...

Last Thursday, between calls to Alabama lawyers and hip-hop music moguls in New York, Mr. Corzine listened to a request from a Texas donor: six seats at a Red Sox-Yankees game Sunday night just before the convention in Boston. Not a problem, said the senator. His committee had bought 150 tickets, at face value. It was now selling them to donors at $5,000 a pair, an arbitrage that would make a Goldman trader envious....