WASHINGTON — Some of President Barack Obama’s wealthiest supporters are becoming a bit whiny, and it has nothing to do with policy.
Tickets for tours of the presidential residence are scarce, even for those who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for last year’s campaign. Private fundraisers tend to be brief, businesslike affairs.
And there have been no sleep overs in the Lincoln Bedroom, weekends at Camp David or intimate lunches with the first couple.
Nearly a year into his presidency, that pattern has led some top Democratic donors across the country to grumble that they aren’t getting the kind of personal attention from Obama and special access to the White House that they became used to during the Bill Clinton presidency.
“I’ve had almost no communication with the White House,” said Chris Korge, a top Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter from Miami who later collected $5.5 million, making him one of Obama’s biggest fundraisers.
Korge said his only visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. was a St. Patrick’s Day event, and he complained in a recent interview that the administration has done little to reward the president’s donors or tap into their experience and wisdom.
“There is no connection between the administration and money people,” he said. “If they do have any connection . . . it is very limited as far as the fun stuff is concerned.”
“You don’t have the hang time with Obama,” said Andy Spahn, a Hollywood consultant who joined with Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to become one of Obama’s biggest bundlers.
Spielberg and Geffen made their first visit to the White House at the state dinner for the Indian prime minister; Spahn was not on the list.
Obama donors have by no means been cut out completely, and Republicans and campaign finance activists argue that a president who set a different standard for himself by running against a culture of questionable ethics in Washington has still done too much for his financial backers.
At least 30 of the president’s 324 top bundlers — those who raised $100,000 or more — have been nominated for ambassadorships or other senior administration posts so far, including some of the most consequential and coveted American outposts. Some have also been given at least one opportunity to visit the White House, in venues such as the St. Patrick’s Day party in February or the recent first formal state dinner.
“To some degree he gets hoisted on his own petard, because he said he’s not going to do business as usual,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Legal Center.
But a review of appointments, visitor logs and other records also shows that large bundlers account for only a small fraction of the hundreds of Senate-confirmed positions that Obama has moved to fill during his first 10 months in office.
The numbers pale in comparison with Clinton’s administration — during which coziness with donors was legendary — or with George W. Bush, who gave hundreds of jobs and other perks to wealthy supporters.
The number of jobs given to top Obama bundlers so far is not on pace with such appointments under Bush. Out of more than 500 “Pioneers” and “Rangers” who raised $100,000 or more during Bush’s two presidential campaigns, nearly 40 percent ended up with some kind of administration job or appointment, according to data compiled by Public Citizen.
In the weeks leading up to this year’s elections, Obama stepped up his fundraising, crisscrossing the country and finishing the political season with 28 separate fundraisers who brought in more than $27 million for Democratic candidates and his party, according to data compiled by CBS radio reporter Mark Knoller, who closely tracks presidential travel schedules.
The pace is dramatically different from that of Bush’s first year in office, when the new GOP president — unrestrained by “soft money” donation limits in 2001 — raised $48 million despite attending just six events.
Logs released last month showed that 41 bundlers who raised $100,000 or more for Obama had visited the White House through mid-September.
Top White House officials say the president has actively sought to discourage the kind of donor access that leads to questions about access and perks.
“Under Clinton,” Andy Spahn said, “We did spend time in the White House. We did spend time in Camp David. We did spend time with the president in Los Angeles. There has been real frustration in the donor community in general. There is so much less of that than I think ever occurred in the past.”
