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Obama Woos Clinton Donors, LGBTs Included 

Sen. Barack Obama meets with Hillary Clinton's donors in D.C. on Thursday, but the campaign's efforts to romance Clinton's LGBT fund-raisers is still finding its groove.


As the Obama campaign prepared to woo high-powered Clinton donors at a Washington, D.C., event featuring both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama Thursday evening, it was unclear how many of Clinton’s major LGBT donors would be present.

Mark Walsh, who had a full-time position in Clinton’s campaign as director of LGBT outreach, which included a fund-raising component, said via e-mail that he had not been contacted about the event, nor had three other Clinton donors he spoke with recently.

Reached for an interview two weeks ago by phone, Walsh said he wanted to be helpful to the Obama campaign but had not seen a lot of individual outreach yet. “They haven’t approached any of my people that I know of -- my people meaning Clinton fund-raisers in the gay community -- to say, ‘Will you help us put an event together?’” he said. “I hope they do because they certainly should. There’s a lot of people in the community that want to be helpful and make sure we elect a Democrat in the fall.”

The campaign did hold a conference call on June 6, led by Steve Hildebrand, Obama’s gay deputy campaign manager, to court Clinton’s LGBT backers; the call drew about 1,500 listeners. Though campaign officials declined to speak on the record about finance outreach, Kevin Jennings, cochair of the senator’s LGBT finance committee, said he had been especially cautious not to bludgeon Clinton’s donors so soon after her exit from the race.

“There is an enormous feeling of loss and disappointment, which is very natural. I felt like we needed to be very respectful of those folks and give them room to make the decision that works for them,” Jennings said, adding that he had been having some one-on-one conversations with former Clinton backers even though they had yet to begin a massive outreach campaign. “We really wanted to let the overall campaign process with the Hildebrand call and the meeting tonight play itself out and then approach people in a respectful and quiet manner.” 

Jennings said he did know of one donor from the LGBT camp who was flying to D.C. from Seattle in order to attend the event and make an informed decision after hearing Obama speak Thursday evening.

Though Jennings noted being “encouraged” by recent conversations he has had with LGBT Clinton backers, some Clintonites such as Jeff Soref have decided to focus their energy elsewhere in the coming months.

“I’m on the platform committee for the [Democratic] convention, and my plan is to be involved with that,” said Soref, who is serving on the committee on behalf of New York State. “To the extent that I can help to make this platform LGBT-friendly, I’d like to do that, and that’s what I’m really focusing on right now. It’s convention-specific.” Soref added that he did have what he termed one “significant” phone call from the Obama campaign about fund-raising, though he declined to say whom he had spoken with.

Another key Clinton donor, Fred Hochberg, has spoken with chief strategist David Axelrod and finance chair Penny Pritzker from the Obama camp and is already working his donor connections. “I am enthusiastically supporting Barack Obama for president, raising money and ready to campaign where needed,” Hochberg, who is traveling internationally, said via e-mail.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Roger
    Date posted: 7/7/2008 12:54:00 AM
    Hometown: New York City

    Comment:

    Why is the Advocate's message board so full of dishonest comments about Senator Obama's record on LGBT equality? Have any of you ever visited his Web site? Heard him speak? Sent his campaign an e-mail to inquire? If you did you would find a wealth of support from the Senator from Illionois on LGBT equality. Including, a wealth of information on his support of our community and even a PDF of his ANSWERS to an Human Rights Campaign questionaire on those issues (The only issue he did not support was marriage, although he opposes constitutional amendments to ban marriage). People with actual records of misinformation on gay people-like the mainstream media and Senator McCain are doing that just nicely. By the way, if you want to see a real homophobe, try checking McCain's record and even his Web site. That might help you in your confusion. Here's a hint, we don't exist on his site, nor his vision of this country's future.

  • Name: Jay
    Date posted: 7/1/2008 10:44:00 PM
    Hometown: Sppringfield, IL

    Comment:

    Barack, in my opinion, is preparing to pull off a George W. Bush - again. As I languor my summer evenings away reading and watching TV, I have seen Barack pull stunts off that are typical of the Cheney-Bush regime: He violated his commitment to campaign finance. He supports overthrowing FISA and upholds Bush’s warrantless wiretapping policy. He now promises to expand faith-based programs established by Bush. He has re-asserted his support of the religious right’s demand that marriage should be “only between one man and one woman.” I am one queer that is tired of riding in the back of the bus. “Separate and unequal” is not a policy I find acceptable.

  • Name: Bob
    Date posted: 7/1/2008 1:32:00 PM
    Hometown: San Francisco

    Comment:

    I gave up on the Democrats after Bill Clinton was such a disaster for the LGBTQQ community during his 8 years; and Nancy Pelosi took impeachment off the table; and Dianne Feinstein married Richard Blume (one of this countries richest bankers). By the way, Dianne has NEVER been in one gay parade in the 34 years I've lived in San Francisco. Why? Where is the opposition party? Sadly, I think Barack Obama will be nothing more than a lackey for his biggest corporate donors, just like Bill and Hillary were. Why isn't Barack supporting Gay Marriage, single-payer healthcare, a livable wage? I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt anything will change in Washington, DC with Barack Obama in the Oval Office. Sure, he'll try to fix some of the wrongs of the Bush years, but I think it will be corporate business as usual, and screw those on the fringes. I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama gave Bush a full and unconditional pardon like Ford did for Nixon. We'll see.

  • Name: Xavier Chapa
    Date posted: 6/30/2008 4:54:00 AM
    Hometown: Hamburg, Germany

    Comment:

    I say we give up on trying to find the "right" president and focus on winning over the senate and house with officals who WILL do something for equality. Clearly deabating the lesser of two evils is taking us no where, because there is little difference in my book between Obama and McCain.

  • Name: John
    Date posted: 6/29/2008 4:32:00 PM
    Hometown: A swing state

    Comment:

    Why is the Advocate so biased against Obama? I'm sick of the Advocate not giving any reasonable press to politicians who do support gay marriage (Deval Patrick, Russ Feingold, and Dennis Kucinich come to mind!) but giving a free pass to Hilliary. Hillary's never done any more than take advantage of our community. Obama has been far better of gay issues, and is likely to do a lot of good for our community in the Oval Office.

  • Name: Christian
    Date posted: 6/28/2008 12:03:00 AM
    Hometown: Brooklyn

    Comment:

    Maybe we need to focus on something besides gay marriage for ten minutes. While I am not a huge Obama supporter, he'll be 1,000 times better than McSame on not only LGBT issues, but also on a host of other issues.

  • Name: Xavier Chapa
    Date posted: 6/27/2008 11:06:00 AM
    Hometown: Hamburg, Germany

    Comment:

    Actions speak louder than words. Obama has refused to meet with the HRC, any gay press, Mayor Newsom (of SF), and his stance to leave marriage equality up to the states is NOT providing some or any hope for the gay community. I'm not advocating McCain, but if Obama is concerned about winning the race this November, he needs to take a stand in support of equal rights for all American citizens, which includes us! It's nice of Michelle to take the time, but she isn't running for office It's very clear that the gay community is starting to turn on him, and rightfully so

  • Name: JP
    Date posted: 6/27/2008 11:01:00 AM
    Hometown: New York, NY

    Comment:

    Why is there not story about Michelle Obama's well-received speech to a gay audience last night? The mainstream media has reported on it, but not the Advocate. I think the Clinton-centric Advocate has not gotten over the fact that Senator Obama is the nominee. It is time for the Advocate to move on.

  • Name: Tricia
    Date posted: 6/27/2008 8:42:00 AM
    Hometown: Miami

    Comment:

    Simple point-- He is for MOST equality, McSame is for NONE!! It would be pure stupidity to allow McSame to get into the office, when Obama gives us SOME hope while McSame is NO HOPE!

  • Name: David
    Date posted: 6/26/2008 11:56:00 PM
    Hometown: McKinzie

    Comment:

    Oh please! He's not for equal rights, despite his own personal achievements of overcoming bigotry and hatred. Separate is not equal. Obama says he's for equal rights for the GLBT community, yet he's against gay marriage rights. He's said so on many occasions. I'd rather vote Liberatarian or Green than for such an obvious hypicrite!



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