Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-11-11)

 POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek November 11, 2019

37

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s’ sense of alienation.

to fund her “Medicare for All” plan. But some of
the party’s biggest fundraisers also say donors are
acutely aware that their money may not get them
what it once did. “The value of the donation goes
down,” says Marc Lasry, the billionaire co-founder
of Avenue Capital and co-owner of the Milwaukee
Bucks, who raised money for Hillary Clinton in

2016. “What that means is that donors or Wall
      Street will have less influence.”
      Anxiety among the large-donor class has grown
      alongside Warren’s rise in the polls, which her cam-
      paign attributes partly to her pledge to forgo big
      money. “Ninety-seven percent of the people I know
      in my world are really, really fearful of her,” says
      Michael Novogratz, a former Goldman Sachs Group
      Inc. partner who now invests in cryptocurrency as
      founder of Galaxy Investment Partners. Much of
      that fear is overblown, he says, at least as it pertains
      to big hikes in high-end tax rates, which face long
      odds in Congress. But Novogratz, too, is bothered
      by Warren’s sharp attacks on the rich. “I’m hoping
      she pivots,” he says. “She’s such a good politician.
      She’s so smart. She’s witty. I’d rather have some-
      one more centrist.”
      One reason wealthy donors are nervous is that
      the grassroots-focused approach is working much
      the way Warren and Sanders anticipated: democra-
      tizing access to power. “The small-donor money is
      not just putting bundlers and big donors to shame,”
      says a top Obama bundler who requested anonym-
      ity because he still raises money for Democrats.
      “It’sactuallytakingpowerawayfromthetradi-
      tionalthree,four,fivemarketsthathavedispro-

for you, it’s human nature to listen to what they

have to say.”

But while Warren’s and Sanders’s attacks on the

traditional fundraising system have helped boost

their candidacies, bundlers say they’ve hurt the

Democratic National Committee, which trails the

GOP in fundraising and spending by a huge margin.

The Republican National Committee finished

September with $59 million in the bank, seven

times more than the DNC.

Three more Democratic Party fundraisers who

requested anonymity because they’re not autho-

rized to speak on the party’s behalf say Warren’s

rise has hurt their efforts to close that gap. In

September, when fundraising typically picks up

after the summer doldrums, the DNC raised $1 mil-

lion less than it had in August.

Not everyone worries about a fundraising

cataclysm. Wolf, the former Obama fundraiser,

thinks things will change once the Democratic nom-

inee faces the prospect of being outspent by the

Trump campaign and his Republican allies. “When

we come to the general [election], that candidate

has to make sure that we can compete,” he says.

That must involve political action committees and

other outside groups that rely on big-dollar donors,

Wolf adds. “We cannot be at a disadvantage, and

we won’t be.”

In recent weeks, Warren has made minor

concessions to worried Democrats, including by

headlining a high-dollarfundraiserinWashington

for the DNC. On Oct. 15 she emphasized in

a Mediumpost, “I will continuehelping the

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