Hillraisers Donated Less Than $20,000 To Obama In June

***UPDATED BELOW***

By now, most political junkies know that Barack Obama raised a lot of money in June.

But his campaign's $52 million dollar take for the month becomes all the more impressive when considering the utter lack of help he received from Hillary Clinton's high-dollar fundraising machine. When comparing Obama's full FEC filing for June with a list of 311 "Hillraisers" -- or supporters who bundled more than $100,000 in contributions for Sen. Clinton -- the Huffington Post found only eight names in common between the two lists. Not all of those donors maxed out, either, making for a relatively paltry figure of $19,250 in direct, hard-money contributions from Hillraisers for the month.

That does not mean that only eight of Clinton's top donors have contributed to Obama since Clinton dropped out. Several dozen more Hillraisers are rumored to have donated in July, but those details will not be available until late August. Some other prominent Hillraisers, like Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, have hosted high-dollar events at their homes, drawing many more times the $4600 limit they each could have given individually by law.

But still, the fact that fewer than three percent of Clinton's donors have donated any money directly to Obama in his first month as presumptive nominee is likely to raise the eyebrows of some leaders in the Democratic Party who are hoping to see signs of unity. Clinton suspended her campaign in early June, and officially endorsed Barack Obama in a speech on June 7.

In addition, only a scattered few Hillraisers donated to the Democratic National Committee or its Victory Fund in June -- perhaps a more worrying development for the party as it tries to keep pace with its Republican counterpart. (Such checks to the party, however, can go as high as $28,500.)

A source close to the Clinton camp who spoke to the Huffington Post on background said the trend was not irreversible for the Obama campaign, however. "The best thing they can do to bring the Clinton people along is to hire Clinton finance staffers to work with their donors," the source said, adding that no high-level Clinton finance figures have been hired to work for the campaign. "There are some people [Hillraisers] who will never come over," the source conceded, "but some of the people just haven't been involved in the process [thus far]. ... And in a tight race, you need as many people as possible. It's a big deal."

The Huffington Post has reported previously on some of the most outspoken Hillraiser holdouts. And, it must be noted, the ultimate usefulness of some of these figures is not how much they donate personally, but whether they perform the hard work of organizing others to open their wallets. Still, individual contributions can be a sign of intent or enthusiasm.

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Judging by the latest figures, there isn't much of either among Hillraisers at the moment.

The complete list of names for Hillraiser donors in June is below:

Obama for America: 8 Hillraisers

Gary Gensler
John Graham
Lorraine Hariton
Laurence Humphries
Pat Maloney Jr.
Amb. Arthur Schechter
Ann Stock
Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis

Victory Fund: 6 Hillraisers

Mark Aronchick
Clarence Avant
John Emerson
John Graham
Chad Griffin
Marc Nathanson

DNC: 4 Hillraisers

Rashid Chaudary
Gary Gensler
Amb. Arthur Schechter
Maureen White

LATE UPDATE: The Washington Post's The Trail blog offers another dimension to the picture. Scouring the latest FEC reports, they discovered a total of 2,200 individual Clinton donors -- as distinct from the smaller group of elite Hillraisers we tracked -- who became first-time Obama donors in June, and who donated $1.8 million of the $52 million total (or approximately four percent of the campaign's June take).

As we reported, Clinton and Obama sources described to the Post the fact that some bundlers may help fundraise without writing checks themselves. However, during our own review, it was clear that many more Hillraisers also wrote personal checks to Clinton, in addition to their bundling, than have currently done the same for Obama.

Comments

[Chandidevi]

Barack Obama represents the alpha male who has intimidated and frustrated many of the over-the-hill gang of Hillary supporters. He is everything they despise in men. He is confident, handsome, forthright and self-empowered. God bless him!

[shades3]

Chandidevi, EXACTLY. You have reeled off all the qualities that are needed in a leader.
They are not possessed exclusively in men. But, Hillary Clinton being a woman is not enough.
Her "experience" that was so touted at the beginning of her campaign was overblown in that almost none of it was her own. She was depending on her name recognition and was expecting to coast to victory with no significant opposition, mostly because the people are so angry and frustrated at what the Republicans have done to the country for the last eight years. She ASSUMED that the nomination would be handed to her.
Clinton just wouldn't accept the fact that she could be beaten.

A leader must inspire. Obama does that, not only in his own country, but around the world.
Hillary Clinton has at least as many prospective voters who dispise her and will stay home rather than vote for her.
The Republicans knew that going in. So, many of the much-repeated eighteen million who voted for Clinton in the primary voted in open primaries where party-affiliation was not a factor, in order to have an easy to beat candidate in the General Election.
Operation Chaos failed. Those voters were not Democrats. If there are eighteen million Clinton supporters, all they had to do was contribute $1 each and her debt would disappear.
BUT THEY HAVEN'T. Why is that???
Talk is cheap.

WHEW.

[SaddieMcCall]

it is their choice to not donate to a candidate that they don't support - but it also suggests that they have less say in their demands that Obama selects Hillary as his VP. If they don't support him as President, then why would they want her to serve as his VP? Obama needs someone he works well with, and not someone who will try to strong arm him into giving what they want. There are a lot of people who support Obama, despite not being promised positions or support on their pet programs. There is no reason for Obama to promise anything to anyone who will only support him in exchange for their demands.

[Gary47]

Yes, well I didn't give him any money in June either. So write a story about me. Find something else to hate - like John maybe!

[NickNas]

Yes it does...check out the update

a total of 2,200 individual Clinton donors -- as distinct from the smaller group of Hillraisers we tracked -- who became first-time Obama donors in June, and who donated $1.8 million of the $52 million total (or approximately four percent of the campaign's June take).

[foreffectivegovernment]

I have a question. Obama found he could not even buy votes by outspending Hillary Clinton two and sometimes three-to-one in the latter stages of the Democratic Primary. John McCain is self-imploding in front of everyones eyes and Obama is still only a few points ahead when he should be twenty ahead. Based on the above, why does Obama need so much of your lunch money and trust-fund allowances to become President?

[stringer]

Isn't the point to win? Who cares how he wins?

This is why Democrats constantly lose. Now you're going to take issue with the WAY Obama is winning. In that you think it's too expensive.

Well I'd argue that 8 years of George W. Bush and another 4 of John McCain would be too expensive. In lives and money.

If Barack Obama needs to spend $52 million a month for the next 8 months to prevent that so be it. Nobody's putting a gun to your head and making you give. According to this article a lot of prominent Democrats aren't. So don't give. But quit whining about the way Barack Obama chooses to win. It's his money, he raised it.

[harriscrl3]

Few points ahead can translate into a landslide easily. Second of all the question is McCain is the war hero the one that we should all trust Obama is a FRESHMAN senator just like he was with Hilary and yet he came from nowhere and beat her and he is giving McCain a run for his money in red states that were suppose to be republican easily thats the advantage of having money he FORCES McCain to spen in states that Bush won by 20 points do you seriously think that HIlary Clinton could have done this I doubt it. First of all she couldnt raise the money she ran out of money spent her money poorly and lost but ended with 23 million dollars in debt. That was a disaster of a campaign. Obama may spend millions but at least he had something to show for it in primary and he is AHEAD of John McCain. Not to mention the MILLIONS that the RNC and other groups have to spend they have more money that Obama to spend. So if anyone is buying this election and outspending anyone its RETHUGS.

Carol

[obombbombiran]

I always think it's funny that liberals think that republicans run their campaigns like democrats. Like somehow there's all these well funded 527's on the Right that are just itching to slime Obama on behalf of McCain. It's just not true. There are no George Soros's on the Right. There is no Moveon.org on the Right. The 527's on the Right have a lot of money, but most of them are reluctant to spend it on behalf of McCain who has thumbed his nose at them OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. You can call him McBush or McSame. Were that it were so! If he were just another right wing conservative like Bush, don't you think that he would get a whole lot more support from his base? and 527 support? I wish your dystopian fantasies were true. Then McCain would have a better chance of winning.

BTW, the only reason the RNC has more money than the DNC is because the Democrats were stupid enough to make Howard Dean Chairman. He's run the DNC into the ground.

[buddhistMonkey]

((( "... Obama is still only a few points ahead..." )))

You must be talking about the national polls. They're meaningless. Go state by state using a map of the electoral college and you'll see that Obama is way ahead of McCain. Hillary Clinton started out with all the money, and all of the institutional advantages, and Obama still beat her with his people-powered campaign. He'll do the same to McCain, with or without the "Hillraisers."

[ChiGuy]

1.) He ran close to her because she had strong name recognition and momentum which he had to work against. It took a ton of organization and ad buys to do what he did. And it worked.

2.) Pulling ridiculous hypothetical twenty point leads out of your backside is not a good idea.
When was the last time you saw that sized lead by a POTUS candidate?

The fact that McCrackers is SLOWLY self-imploding only means that 0 will gain, S-L-O-W-L-Y.
Even then, it won't be by any exaggerated margin like your vivid imagination cooked-up.

[obombbombiran]

Dukakis was up 17 during the summer of 88

[Rotwang]

The other Dem candidate, alas, was too broke to continue.

[vonny]

Gawd....you all sound like you're about 12 years old.

[olivia]

If you think it's bad here, go to riverdaughter.wordpress.com and hear the PUMAS lol

[Rotwang]

You mean the Sisterhood of the Sniveling Rants?

[buddhistMonkey]

Don't worry, someday you'll turn 12 too.

[vonny]

Barack Obama used donations to refurbish and repaint his campaign plane, and has removed the flag of the United States from the tail of the plane. T]he plane that once had an American flag on its tail now sports the Obama “O.” “Change We Can Believe In” and the candidate’s website are splayed across both sides of the fuselage, making this 757 anything but inconspicuous.

This means, of course, that the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Germany, and other countries will see a plane without an American flag — a plane on which the sole symbol is all about one man. Barack: Afghans and Iraqis won’t be voting for you in November. But they will notice that you failed to represent yourself as a proud American citizen while you are abroad. We’ve noticed too.

[anothergreenbus]

This is a foolish comment. The Iraqis and Afghanis have seen plenty of flags on fighter planes, humvees and unexploded ordinance. And we can all be very proud of that--especially you.

[Rockville]

I hope you are a proud enough American citizen that you don't leave your own flag out in the rain or out at night, as many people seem to do. Following flag etiquette is important for all of us to understand.

[GeoLee]

Well, you can leave it out at night as long as there is a light beam illuminating the flag, according to the code for flying the U.S. flag, fyi.

[buddhistMonkey]

Sounds like the fake "lapel pin scandal" all over again. Guess what? No one cares.

[Relax08]

Oh my goodness. How nutty are we to worry about something like what is the tale of an airplane.
And do you really think these people have not seen enough American planes in their lives.

Obama has conducted himself 100 times more American than either Bush or McCain ever did as they lied and cheated our country into a war justified by nothing more than Bush's ego and McCain's incredible stupidity. Perhaps you should be more concerned about how Bush and now McCain has sullied the American flag with their torture, their occupation of a foreign country and their illegal spying on the American people. They are the traitors and anyone who believes in them are as the real traitors to real American values. I suggest you go back to a grade school civics class and try to remember what this country is all about. It's obvious you don't have any real appreciation of what this country is really about.

[Bettysdad]

Unlike wingnuts, Democrats don't need a flag to know what country they're citizens of.

[NTO08]

Why would anyone want to bother?

They know that Obama has hedge funders, Wall Street padding the bill, not some forlorned, Birkenstocked yuppie from Cambridge chipping in some five dollars...

[Bettysdad]

You think that one of those hedge funders is the one Chelsea is working for?

After leaving her job at the 3! defense consultant?

[Felicty]

ONLY $20,000?

Cut them loose, Barack. They are useless to your campaign. They are not worth the headache they bring.

[MsLiz]

This report does not mention the individual Hillary supporters who may have sent in donations for Obama. It only reports on the bundlers' activities. No conclusions should be reached when the data is limited and only includes June.

[NickNas]

a total of 2,200 individual Clinton donors -- as distinct from the smaller group of Hillraisers we tracked -- who became first-time Obama donors in June, and who donated $1.8 million of the $52 million total (or approximately four percent of the campaign's June take).

[NickNas]

check the update.

[Ignorancedestroys]

it said 2200 raised about 1.8 million.

did you even read the article?

[GeoLee]

That is assuming there were enough cross references to know for sure if that was ALL of us. It may not show all of us based on the delay between when things went in to Hillary and what months are still being tallied. I know when I wrote my check and when it finally got cashed it would not have had me in June total, for example. I think we will; know more after July's checks are in. But I would say nearly 2 million from the still mourning was a pretty good take and bodes well for the fall. I am encouraged to see that. I wrote my check the same day I also wrote one to help pay off HC's debt.

[stanjz]

It's all going to come back to haunt Senator Clinton if she ever tried to run again. Also, because they won't donate to the Democratic Party, there might be less of a majority should Senator Clinton ever make it to be president. These people are as much as danger to the country as the 28% who still support George Bush. They put pride ahead of principle.

[brensgrrl]

Whew! Thanks for you stellar contribution to party unity. Last time I checked, there were about
18 million of us (former) supporters of Hillary. I guess that Obama doesn't need us now either because we are, as you say, irrelevant.

Maybe we should ALL just stay home in November. After all, Hillary supporters are a threat to the nation.

(Sheesh! The stupidity of it all!)

When you wake up from your nap, Private DUH, you might want to consider that we are contributing to Hillary FIRST to get her out of debt. Obama isn't helping her. After we get Hills out of debt, we'll toss a little something to Obama.

[NotMcCain]

Eh, the Hillraisers know they can't buy their way into the WH any more.

Nice of them to even give $20,000, under the circumstances.

(As for the "non-givers"--guess what? We don't need you, or care.)

[Peace15Progress]

No kidding. This shows the real reason why they were putting money into the race. It wasn't national interests or progressive principles, but access to the white house, plain and simple. Just like the Clintons we always knew and (barely) tolerated.

[GeoLee]

I suspect there are a fair number giving to O for much the same reason...that, my friend, is politics as usual from those who jsut want to be with the one they hope will repay the favor after january '09. I guess I will let you choose to be naive for now, but that is how the rich people play the game.

[brensgrrl]

Soooooo, well then. Obama doesn't need the 18 million of us. Thanks for the heads up on that, General Confusion. We'll ALL just stay home on election day.

[Lisette]

Quelle Surprise!!!

[Brillig]

Not just 17 people - 17 people MOSTLY MEN!

NOW do you see the real problem with counting on women? If it is not PMS it is MenoPause

Thankfully, the little men and women down here on the flats cant have the luxury of 'giving in' to our emotions or hormones, most of us work a full time job.

[pupbayer]

LOL! Do we have a little sexist problem?

[Ignorancedestroys]

not the men anyways i guess. women also do the sexism b.s too as in this case.

[brensgrrl]

What! I don't believe the ignorance exhibited here!

I'm going to Democratic Underground and post a link to this. It's unbelievable. People who supported Hillary need to the the wonderful party unity over here.

[gtalkspolitics]

And are you suprised these are the people that Hillary stated were" white, uneducated, and blue collar!!!!!!!! so due to NATA the Clinton Adminstration already shipped there jobs to MEXICO !!!