Big Money on Barack Obama as Hillary Clinton's Donors Defect

By David Saltonstall
Daily News Senior Correspondent

Hillary Clinton's top donors are starting to jump ship, and increasingly they're paddling—checkbooks in hand—toward rival Barack Obama, a Daily News analysis has found.

The review of campaign finance data found that in March alone, some 113 top Clinton funders—namely those who had already given her the maximum $2,300 allowed by law—switched sides and gave to Obama for the first time.

The analysis, performed for The News by the Center for Responsive Politics, found only 26 Obama givers had forked over to Clinton during the same period.

While not exactly a gusher in the context of a Democratic primary that has already shattered fund-raising records, the trickle of donors away from Clinton is another sign of the former First Lady's sinking fortunes—and the likely cascade to Obama.

"Once people think they know who the nominee is going to be, money just streams in," said Stephen Weissman of the Campaign Finance Institute, noting that John Kerry went from being all but penniless to raising $1 million a day after he locked up the Democratic nomination in 2004.

"I think what happened with Kerry will happen with Obama as soon as it becomes clear—and I think it is clear—that he will be the nominee," Weissman added.

Obama's success in chipping away at Clinton's fund-raising base comes as he tries to convince undecided superdelegates that his nomination is inevitable.

Any sense that Clinton's top donors are abandoning her could provide Obama with fresh evidence that he's the candidate most likely to unite the Democratic Party, experts noted.

Donors who have jumped ship are not Clinton's topflight fund-raisers, or "Hilraisers," who bundle their contributions with other wealthy givers to deliver six-figure amounts to the campaign.

"The majority of her big financial donors will stay with her until she tells them not to," said Judith Hope, a former chairwoman of the New York State Democratic Party.

But they may be making a move soon. The Washington Post reported Sunday that fat cats on both sides have launched private talks about merging the two teams.

Those who are already turning away, however, inhabit a different and critical tier. Not Clinton loyalists, they are the lawyers, bankers and doctors who make up the core of the Democratic Party fund-raising establishment.

In short, they are wealthy professionals who want to back the winner, and writing a $2,300 check is no problem.

They include William Louis-Dreyfus, who in addition to being the father of "Seinfeld" star Julia Louis-Dreyfus is one of the richest businessmen in the world.

He gave Clinton the maximum allowed in August 2007, when the former First Lady seemed like a sure bet. But then on March 31, he wrote out his first check to Obama, also for the maximum.

"Obama seems to be a bit more of an original thinker—you get less pablum and less pandering with him," William Louis-Dreyfus told The News. "Hillary, she gave you a sense that somehow she was entitled to the presidency."

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