POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek November 11, 201936
OTOILLUSTRATION BY 731; PHOTOS: GETTY (3). DATA: FEC○ The wealthy are finding themselves shut out
of the top 2020 campaignsDemocrats Cool
On Wall Street
Donors. The
Feeling Is Mutual
Wealthy donors have long played a central role in
Democratic presidential politics: filling campaign
coffers, jockeying for influence, and dispensing
often unwanted advice to candidates and their
staffs. But that system may be in jeopardy.
“In this primary season, a paradigm shift has
taken place where grassroots donors are much
more important to a candidate’s success,” says
Robert Wolf, a major Wall Street fundraiser for
Barack Obama who founded 32 Advisors, a strategy
and investment firm. Senators Elizabeth Warren
of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont,
both of whom have spurned donations from pri-
vate, large-dollar fundraisers, together raised about
$50 million in the third quarter, with tech entrepre-
neur Andrew Yang adding $10 million, 99% of it in
increments of $200 or less. That’s more than the
total brought in by the six other candidates who’ve
qualified for the Nov. 20 Democratic debate, all of
whom have followed the standard fundraising play-
book. (One of them, billionaire investor Tom Steyer,
is largely self-funding his campaign.)
The populist money bonanza—chiefly propelled
by Warren and Sanders—has put a scare into people
accustomed to being sought after for their ability
to write large checks. “This is pretty straightfor-
ward,” Warren told CBS News on Oct. 8. “Either
you think ... electing a president is all about going
behind closed doors with bazillionaires and corpo-
rate executives and lobbyists and scooping up as
much money as possible. Or you think it’s about a
grassroots, let’s build it from the ground up.”
Well-heeled Democrats have plenty of reasons
to oppose Warren and Sanders on policy, from
their calls for tighter bank and business regula-
tions to their proposed wealth taxes, including a
6% levy on billionaires Warren has put forwardbullets and water cannons. “They can’t stop the
protests, so police think the solution is just to use
more and more of them.”
A study released in September by a group
of chemical engineers in Hong Kong found that
swabs from streets, train stations, and children’s
playgrounds showed tear gas residue as far as
300 meters (984 feet) from where it had been
launched. “Even when tear gas is gone, it can
still be dispersed,” says Michael Lee, who led the
study. Contact with residue can cause skin irrita-
tion, and particles may be washed into gutters and
enter the water supply. A letter published in the
Lancet medical journal on Oct. 14 by a group of
Hong Kong medical professors, warning about the
long-term health effects of all the tear gas used,
prompted the territory’s health minister, Sophia
Chan, to say publicly that the government hasn’t
detected any related irregularities in the city’s
water and air quality.
Another Wong Tai Sin resident, Jerry Ip, regu-
larly experiences the lingering effects of tear gas.
When he dresses his 2½-year-old son to go to the
playground, near where Ng lives, he reaches for
long-sleeve shirts and long pants to protect the
boy’s skin, despite temperatures that can reach as
high as 90F. Even so, his son’s hands often get itchy,
Ip says. He blames the tear gas residue: “I’m sure
if you were to go to the lab and check this place,
you’ll find it all over here.”
Children and elderly people are particularly
vulnerable to tear gas exposure, says Sven-Eric
Jordt, an associate professor of anesthesiology
at Duke University. “Children’s lungs are much
smaller and have a smaller surface for oxygen
exchange, so the same concentration of tear gas
therefore causes more lung irritation and injury
than in adults,” he says, adding that kids’ eyes
and skin also have thinner protective layers. In
the U.S., he says, police and fire departments usu-
ally decontaminate areas where tear gas was used
or provide instructions for decontamination. Says
Ip: “Here, no one washes it!”
Ng says his life has changed completely because
of the tear gas. Apart from his headache-induced
insomnia and lung troubles, he’s developed a
sense of dread that’s curtailed his daily move-
ments. “Since that event, I don’t take my walks
much anymore, because I feel afraid that tear gas
will suddenly be fired in the street,” he says. “Even
when I see police now, I feel a little bit panicky.”
—SheridanPrasso,withNatalieLungTHE BOTTOM LINE The widespread use of tear gas in Hong Kong
since June has created health challenges that could linger long
after the protests cease.PH
O