Robin Duke

The dreary work of campaign field operations—knocking on doors, chatting up old people and cold calling for a candidate—is often carried out by eager college students wanting to make their first inroads into politics.

That was not the case on Ridgewood Street in Ames on December 15, when some of Hillary Clinton’s richest and most influential bundlers and donors—Hassan and Sheila Nemazee, Alan and Susan Patricof, and the former ambassador to Norway, Robin Duke—braved the icy elements and doorman-less ingresses of Iowa to proselytize for their good friend Hillary.

“Number one convert!” shouted Hassan Nemazee, a multi-millionaire investment banker who served as John Kerry’s New York finance chair in 2004. “I moved them from an Edwards to a Hillary.”

Mr. Nemazee, wearing iron-creased jeans, comfortable brown shoes, a blue winter coat and a red baseball cap emblazoned with a Ferrari stallion, was stepping cautiously along an ice-paved walk.

Across the street, Ms. Duke worked the even-numbered houses and was having a tougher time of it.  read more »

A small vault's worth of deep-pocketed donors will gather at the Manhattan home of George Soros this Wednesday to throw some serious cash towards the campaign of attorney Judy Aydelott. Aydelott is running for congress in the 19th District (i.e, the Hudson Valley 's "country house" region) against six-term incumbent Sue Kelly. Among the hosts of the $1000-$2100 event? Jayni and Chevy Chase, Stanley Tucci, Gloria Steinem, Ambassador Robin Duke, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Greg Sargent reports that in 2005 the Democrats outraised Republicans on Wall Street for the first time since 1994, thanks in part to the combined, one-two Hillary-Schumer fund-raising punch.

In other Hillary news, the Daily News reported this weekend that the senator has been renting out her donor list as a way to squeeze every last penny from her fund-raising base. While this strikes us as a little bit money-grubbing, to be sure, did any donors really think these people dind't sell their names?

And John Kerry continues to pursue the impossible, or at least the improbable: in the hopes of currying favor with Democratic candidates, party committees, and other groups that might be helpful to a presidential bid, he has doled out more dollars to these groups than any other 2008 hopeful, according to Roll Call (subscription only) and Political Wire.