巴菲特捐款力挺希拉里竞选总统
世界第三大富豪股神巴菲特先生日前表示愿意捐款2.5万美元兑现其之前的“将重金助希拉里2016年参选美国总统”的承诺。Warren Buffett has said he's willing to "put money" on Hillary Clinton
winning the 2016 presidential race. Turns out, he really meant it.
The Oracle of Omaha gave the maximum donation allowed to Ready for Hillary
last quarter, his first-ever check to the sort of independent political groups
that he's scorned in the past. Buffett, who is the third richest man in the
world, gave $25,000, the most any individual can donate under the committee's
self-imposed cap, according to a person familiar with Ready for Hillary's
post-election financial disclosure report. The group has raised more than $11
million to finance its efforts to lay the groundwork for a Clinton presidential
campaign. Their latest report is due to be filed with the Federal Election
Commission by midnight Thursday.
The contribution marks a major shift for one of the country's most famous
business leaders, who's long been known in Democratic circles as a bit of a
political tightwad. Though he's given hundreds of thousands to party committees
and candidates, Buffett has shunned super-political action committees and other
groups that can take unlimited sums. Last cycle, he headlined fundraisers for
Obama’s re-election, though he rebuffed solicitations by Priorities USA Action,
a super-PAC supporting the president. “I don’t want to see democracy go in that
direction,” he said in May 2012 when asked at his company's annual shareholder
meeting about his position on giving to outside groups. “You have to take a
stand some place.”
Though he supported both Democratic candidates during the 2008 race,
Buffett has long been an outspoken Clinton supporter, starting with his backing
for her Senate campaign in 2000. Just days after President Barack Obama's
re-election, Buffett told CNN that there wasn't anyone better qualified than
Clinton for the job in 2016. He also said donating to super-PACs was simply
"wrong," an opinion that he apparently no longer holds. "Hillary is going to
win, yeah," he said at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in October. "I will
bet money on it. And I don't do that easily."
Other notable donors to the group, which operates in a similar fashion as a
super-PAC, include Irene Hirano, the widow of late Hawaiian Senator Daniel
Inouye; former New York Representative Ed Towns; and John Zaccaro, the widower
of Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run on a major presidential ticket.
Ready for Hillary has no official ties to Clinton. But they've become a
campaign-in-waiting for the former secretary of state, amassing a list of 3
million supporters. The organization plans to begin shutting down as soon as
Clinton formally announces—if she decides to run, of course. It will make its
list of backers available to her campaign, giving Clinton the type of
infrastructure any candidate would covet. “We will be at or beyond on Day One of
the Clinton campaign, if and when it comes, where we ended up last time,” Jerry
Crawford, an Iowa lawyer who's advised Clinton's 2008 presidential campaigns,
told reporters at a Ready for Hillary donor summit in New York last month.
In a sign that Ready for Hillary doesn't anticipate closing its doors in
the immediate future, organizers took out a $1 million loan—which they plan to
repay by March—to expand its direct mail operation, according to the documents.
Letters touting its work on behalf of Clinton are being sent to every zip code
in the country, according to a strategist involved with the operation, and the
investment has doubled their number of donors who give an average of $10 more
than those online.
Typically, the mail pieces include a pledge card, photo of Clinton being
sworn in as secretary of state, and a solicitation letter from Craig Smith, a
long-time Clinton confidant and adviser to Ready for Hillary. "In 2012,
Republicans saw that an early, strong organization helped re-elect President
Obama. They ignored it then, but I’m sure they won’t make that foolish mistake
again," writes Smith. "I believe we owe it to Hillary to show her we’ve got her
back."
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