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The all-consuming hunt for donors has led President Barack Obama’s campaign to England. And France. And China.
Obama is tapping the network of American citizens living outside the 50 states more than any other presidential campaign has before, with more than a dozen bundlers who have pledged to raise as much as $4.5 million.
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The president’s overseas power centers include London, where high-powered execs like Warner Bros. UK chief Josh Berger and Anthony Gardner of Palamon Capital Partners have promised to deliver as much as $500,000 each to the campaign, and Shanghai, where businessman and Technology for Obama co-chairman Robert Roche has committed to bringing in more than $500,000.
It’s all legal — the donors are American citizens who pay U.S. taxes — and the net income to the campaigns is paltry compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars raised stateside. Presidential campaigns have long taken in campaign donations from expats and people living in U.S. territories, but Obama’s campaign is focusing on those donations more than ever.
(Also on POLITICO: Obama urges action on student loans, transportation)
In 2008, Obama reported having seven bundlers outside the 50 states committed to raising as much as $2.3 million, with the dough rolling in at events like a George Clooney-headlined fundraiser in Geneva, Switzerland. Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took in $610,000. And in 2004, presidential campaigns took in just under $910,000 total from Americans living abroad.
“You’ve got to do it because it’s money you need, but it’s the same as a fundraiser in a small town in America,” said Jack Oliver, who helped create President George W. Bush’s strategy in 2000 and 2004 of holding fundraisers abroad. “It’s not a game changer in resources, but it is money you don’t want [to] leave on the table.”
As of early June, Obama had received more than $455,000 in political contributions outside the 50 states this cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records, and a campaign official told POLITICO that there could be even more U.S. bundlers from abroad before the November election.
Mitt Romney, meanwhile, had received almost $144,000 in campaign contributions outside the 50 states, according to FEC records. Several supporters said he’s expected to attend a fundraiser in London when he travels there for the Olympics this summer.
The Romney campaign doesn’t publicly list its bundlers and did not respond to questions regarding his fundraising efforts abroad.
Last July, the former Massachusetts governor attended a $2,500-per-person fundraiser in London hosted by high-powered donors like hedge fund manager Louis Bacon and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson. Dwight Poler, an executive with Bain Capital, the firm Romney previously worked for, and Raj Bhattacharyya, managing director at Deutsche Bank, also co-hosted the event.
Obama hasn’t attended the foreign fundraisers personally, but campaign and senior White House officials will continue to build up their frequent flier miles before Election Day.
“He has a world perspective that I think is important in today’s interconnected age to ensure the U.S. stays in the lead,” said Vicki Hansen, the Luxembourg-based international vice chairwoman of Democrats Abroad, an arm of the Democratic Party. “We can’t work in isolation or with blinkers on.”
Drinks and canapés were on the menu for an Obama campaign event June 11 in Zurich’s Old Town with former White House deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen — suggested donation $500 per person, or a “special rate” of $150 for young professionals 30 and younger.