Alan Patricof

The Obama campaign is in town to rally its fund-raisers and create new ones. Obama senior strategist David Axelrod is here for two meetings with the campaign's fund-raisers, reported yesterday in the New York Post, at which the Obama finance people have been encouraged to show up with friends who are Clinton supporters.

But the push to recruit the opposition is a measured one.  read more »

So last week, Michael Bloomberg hosted an elite luncheon at the Four Seasons hotel where he talked about things he hoped the various powerful figures in the audience would advocate when politicians ask them for contributions. He also spoke strongly in favor of issues like independent legislative redistricting and free trade with Colombia.  read more »

Dan Squadron is 28 years old, has never held a public office, and has already raised $205,153.33 in his bid to challenge 30-year incumbent Marty Connor for a state Senate seat, according to the most recent campaign filings.

Connor's numbers haven't been posted online yet, but I'm told he's raised less than $5,000.

When I asked his consultant Evan Stavisky, he told me Connor “hasn’t started fund-raising. He’ll raise and spend whatever it takes to successfully defend his seat."

Connor's campaign closed their July 2007 filing $38,217.60 in debt (although Connor says it was an accounting error).

More after the jump.

   read more »

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 »