On the Money Trail, Twice the Challenge

Jonathan Mantz, national finance director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, is helping the former candidate retire $25 million in campaign debt. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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The Florida event with Michelle Obama on Wednesday night was an example of comity: held at the South Beach home of Abigail and F.J. Pollack -- who were once top-dollar bundlers for Clinton, with Abigail Pollack estimated to have raised more than $1 million for Clinton during the primaries -- the party pulled in more than Clinton herself did during her stops in New York earlier in the month.

Beforehand, Chris Korge, a national finance chairman for Clinton, and others held a $100-per-person event for Obama that was aimed at women and was modeled on the women's events Clinton's campaign held. About 900 people attended, raising another $100,000 for Obama.

"We have a track record together," Korge said of working with Obama's people, whom he has known for years. Still, he said: "A lot of our donors, we have a long way to go with them. They really need Hillary to come in here." Clinton, he said, "has been pushing for more" fundraising for Obama and is expected to return to Florida in August.

In New York and California, though, tensions have simmered longer. One top California finance consultant described hearing from a number of major Clinton donors who were upset that they had not received phone calls from the Obama campaign.

An Obama fundraiser on the East Coast said he had faced strong resistance from top contributors when it came to giving money to Clinton, in part because of an erroneous belief that the money would go into Clinton's own pockets (Clinton has said she is working to retire the $13 million or so that she owes vendors, rather than the remaining $12 million or so she lent herself).

Robert Zimmerman, a longtime Clinton supporter in New York, said the mutual suspiciousness has diminished in recent weeks, in part because Obama has shown interest in helping Clinton.

"He's stepped up his calls and his outreach," Zimmerman said. Referring to Obama's finance chairwoman, he added: "Barack Obama, Penny Pritzker and his campaign have made a very personal effort to bring in the Clinton campaign. And frankly, it has come quicker than in past Democratic campaigns."