Top Donors Rewarded with Special White House Perks

October 28, 2009

The Washington Times

By Matthew Mosk

During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings.

High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents obtained by The Washington Times.

One top donor described in an interview with The Times being given a birthday visit to the Oval Office. Another was allowed use of a White House-complex bowling alley for his family. Bundlers closest to the president were invited to watch a movie in the red-walled theater in the basement of the presidential mansion.

Mr. Obama invited his top New York bundler, UBS Americas CEO Robert Wolf, to golf with him during the president’s Martha’s Vineyard vacation in August. At least 39 donors and fundraisers also were treated to a lavish White House reception on St. Patrick’s Day, where the fountains on the North and South Lawns were dyed green, photos and video reviewed by The Times and CBS News also show.

Presidential aides said there has been no systematic effort to use the White House complex to aid fundraising, though they acknowledge the DNC has paid for some events at the presidential mansion.

Many guests at the White House not only had fundraising connections, but also have personal friendships with the president, Mr. Obama’s aides said.

“Contributing does not guarantee a ticket to the White House, nor does it prohibit the contributor from visiting,” said Dan Pfeiffer, deputy White House communications director.

“This administration has across the board set the toughest ethics standards in history. As a result, we have reduced special-interest influence over the policymaking process to promote merit-based decision-making,” he added.

But veteran Washington observers say the Obama-era perks still carry shades of the so-called “donor maintenance” programs of past administrations, when Bill Clinton rewarded fundraisers with White House coffees and overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom and George W. Bush invited “Pioneers” to Camp David or his Texas ranch.

And the donor access raises questions about the fervor of Mr. Obama’s stated commitment to clean up what he once called the “muddy waters” of Washington, where political cash is exchanged for access, ethics experts said.

“Once you start trading money for access, you set up a situation where donors eventually say, ‘Well, actually I have another favor to ask,’” said Scott Thomas, a former Democratic appointee to the Federal Election Commission.

“It starts setting up that relationship. If you help with the money, we’ll do something nice for you. And that is a slippery slope.”

Democratic Party officials told The Times that there is “absolutely no correlation” between fundraising and attendance at White House events.

“I don’t think it’s surprising that people that support the president do go to functions at the White House and have other access, but there are many, many more Americans who attend events and town halls and other things at the White House every single day,” DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse said.

Only select members of the public, however, were provided access to a series of invite-only briefings by senior administration officials organized by the DNC.

Over the summer, for instance, one of Mr. Obama’s deputy chiefs of staff, Jim Messina, flew to Los Angeles and San Francisco to provide in-person briefings to a small collection of top donors to explain the administration’s plan for tackling health care legislation and counter the rising tide of opposition at town-hall meetings. In another, a group was briefed by one of Mr. Obama’s top economic advisers, Austan Goolsbee.

And festive events at the White House, such as parties thrown to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and July Fourth, were underwritten in part or in full by the DNC. Guests lists for those functions have not been made public.

Menu for access

The DNC has presented a menu of exclusive access opportunities to top givers, according to internal DNC documents provided to potential donors and obtained by The Times.

Top-tier donors gain membership to the DNC’s National Finance Committee or to the ultra-exclusive National Advisory Board, both of which meet four times a year, including this week at the Mandarin Hotel in Washington.

“They have an opportunity to meet senior members of the Obama Administration and senior members of Congress, and to hear from political analysts and policy experts,” according to the internal DNC documents.
Mark Gilbert, a Florida businessman who raised more than $500,000 for Mr. Obama, said he gets regular e-mails from the White House on topics that interest him — in his case, economic policy — and he occasionally joins special conference calls for Mr. Obama’s political supporters. The calls are frequently timed to follow up on a major news development out of the White House.

“Any time something major takes place, they follow it up with a conference call with someone who was involved with the policy decision,” Mr. Gilbert said. “Anything that has to do with the Treasury, I get an e-mail.”

Mr. Gilbert said the same practice was routine during the presidential campaign, and it helped Mr. Obama’s supporters feel like partners.

“I think they’re doing a very good job keeping people up to date, trying to keep people well-informed,” Mr. Gilbert said.

A senior party official involved in devising the DNC program, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said the party took pains to design it so access to senior officials would be tightly controlled. Supporters would have the chance to meet party leaders. But the DNC wanted to rule out requests to pair donors with officials on specific issues. The paramount objective, the official said, was to avoid putting party leaders in the position of being asked to deliver on a specific request.

Rewards for those who supported the president’s 2008 campaign have been doled out in less formal ways. Two top bundlers, for instance, described invitations to bring their families to the private bowling alley at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House. Both spoke on the condition they not be named because they did not want to damage their relationship with the White House.

The White House said such invitations could have come through any of scores of staff members, and could have occurred without any input from the president or his senior aides.

In interviews, top Obama donors described different methods for arranging such perks. Some said they contacted Reggie Love, the president’s personal assistant, to request appointments or White House access. Others said they arranged meetings through regional finance directors at the DNC.

“Many people know Reggie because they met him on the trail over the two years he traveled with the president, which is why they reach out to him, but that is not exclusive to donors,” a White House official said. The courtship of top donors is overseen by Rufus Gifford at the DNC in consultation with White House political director Patrick Gaspard, party officials confirmed. Their activities are not new to presidential politics. But they offer a contrast to the public face of the president’s fundraising operation, which has always focused on its efforts to reach out to grass-roots supporters who send small-dollar donations through the Internet.

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