244 mega-fund-raisers rake in the money for Obama

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Updated: October 23, 2011 12:22AM

WASHINGTON — The Obama re-election team released the names of more than 244 mega-fund-raisers Friday — including 31 who raised at least $500,000 to bankroll the Obama 2012 campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The fund-raisers are known in the political business as “bundlers,” people who use their extensive networks to raise money on behalf of a candidate. The Obama for America campaign calls their bundlers “volunteer fund-raisers.”

The Obama team disclosed the 244 bundlers (in a few cases couples or business partners were counted as one bundling unit) who collected at least $50,000. No one from the Chicago area — or Illinois for that matter — hit the elite ranks of bundlers who raised at least $500,000.

The list contained the names of 21 Obama bundlers from the Chicago area, many who were bundlers for 2008:

† $50,000 to $100,000: ComEd’s Frank Clark; in­dustrialist James Crown; Newsweb’s Fred Eychaner; Molly and William Mahoney; Steve Cohen; lawyer Judd Miner; lawyer David Solow, and Tabula Tua’s Grace Tsao-Wu.

† $100,000 to $200,000: Real estate executive Bob Satawake and James “Wally Brewster; Mesirow’s Les Coney; Goldman Sachs’ managing director Bruce Heyman’s wife, Vicki Heyman; Transunion’s Penny Pritzker, who was Obama’s 2008 national fi­nance chair; Cubs executive Laura Ricketts, and Catbird’s Tamar Newberger and Andy Schapiro.

† $200,000 to $500,000: Walton St. Capital’s Neil Bluhm; Ariel’s John Rogers and Mellody Hobson, and Grosvenor Capital’s Michael Sacks.

Obama kicked off his re-election campaign in April with several events in Chicago and will return Aug. 3 for more fund-raising events at the Aragon Ballroom.

The Obama team on Wednesday reported its first 2012 results, collecting more than $86 million in second-quarter fund-raising, with $47 million directly for the Obama for America 2012 campaign and more than $38 million for the Democratic National Committee. Chicagoan and close Obama friend Martin Nesbitt is the Obama for America treasurer, reprising the role from the 2008 campaign.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt in a statement sent via Twitter challenged Republican 2012 hopefuls to disclose their bundlers. “President Bush disclosed his bundlers. Will the current GOP field follow suit? What do they have to hide?”

Obama has rewarded his best fund-raisers from his 2008 campaign, from handing out ambassadorships — for example, Chicagoans Louis Susman to Great Britain, David Jacobson to Canada — to other White House appointments. The minus: These ambassadors are not out fund-raising for Obama 2012. One of Obama’s top 2008 bundlers, Matthew Barzun, was named ambassador to Sweden — and stepped down to return to the U.S. to be Obama’s 2012 national finance chairman.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, one-third of the Obama 2008 campaign’s 556 bundlers were appointed by Obama to jobs or advisory posts. Of the mega fund-raisers — those raising more than $500,000 in 2008, fully 80 percent landed “key administration” posts — many on advisory panels. According to CPI, 24 bundlers are serving as ambassadors.

While the Federal Election Commission requires the disclosure of the names of donors of more than $250, there is no requirement to release the names of the bundlers. Bundlers are especially important in federal campaigns because individuals face federal donation caps of $2,500 per primary and general election and $30,800 to a national party each calendar year.

For a list of bundlers, go to blogs.suntimes.com/sweet