Fundraising Breaks Political Alliances

Democratic presidential hopeful and U.S. Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses a crowd during a fundraiser on the campus of Boston University, in Boston, Friday, April 20, 2007. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (Steven Senne - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Not long ago, Washington lobbyist Wayne Berman and California investor Tom Tellefsen shared the same goal: Raise as much money as possible for George W. Bush. Now they are in opposite presidential camps; Berman with John McCain and Tellefsen with Mitt Romney.

Not long ago, Washington lawyer Gregory Craig and supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle were Bill Clinton loyalists. Craig is now raising money for Barack Obama while Burkle gathers cash for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

They are the bundlers, the fundraisers, the well-connected linchpins of a politician's financial operation. Collectively, they and scores of others helped raise $130 million in presidential primary money last quarter by spinning through their Rolodexes and scrolling through their computerized contact lists.

But with Republican and Democratic presidential fields of multiple candidates, some past alliances have split. Hillary Clinton has lost some old Clinton confederates to Obama. And McCain is building a fundraising team around the very same Bush fundraisers who worked against him in the 2000 presidential campaign.

"The circumstances this year are uncommon," said Don Fowler, the Democratic National Committee chairman during the Clinton presidency. "When the political establishment in either party has no horse, all of the establishees sort of spread around."

In the Republican pack, McCain lists about 60 former "Rangers" or "Pioneers," George W. Bush's elite fundraisers, who are playing an active role in his campaign. Romney and Rudy Giuliani each have about 30 or more of the former Bush bundlers on their teams.

Even more are donating. In the first quarter, Romney raised $203,425 from 94 former Bush bundlers; Giuliani raised $129,694 from 54 of them and McCain collected $188,650 from 86, according to an Associated Press analysis of finance reports.

Still, of the three, McCain fared worst in overall fundraising in the first quarter. He swiftly overhauled his financial operation, placing lobbyist and former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, an old Bush Ranger, in charge.

Loeffler had a new plan within 24 hours and spelled it out to McCain and senior members of the finance team earlier this month during dinner at Washington's swank Mandarin Hotel.

The terms were simple: Send McCain to more fundraising events and set dollar targets for the bundlers, much like the Rangers and the Pioneers had done. The "McCain 100" team would be for those who raise $100,000; "McCain 200" for those who raise $200,000.

"Absence of goals is not a way you successfully conduct any enterprise," said Berman, the campaign's vice chairman.

Seven years ago, Berman was trying to sink McCain's campaign. He was a Bush Ranger, rallying with other insiders behind the establishment candidate. But Berman knew McCain; he had been host at a fundraiser for him in 1986 when McCain first ran for the Senate.