Reply #9: ThinkProgress has the goods on ECI [View All]

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http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/06/02/234474/hedge-fund-managers-eci-obama/

Jun 2, 2011

But seeing that ECI is getting some attention today, it’s worth digging a bit deeper into the group’s origins and looking at benefactors to the group’s PAC. An examination of ECI’s Political Action Committee’s disclosures show that a former Obama supporter has donated to ECIPAC, but the Israel-Palestine issue doesn’t appear to have had anything to do with his shift from fundraising for Obama to supporting a group which runs misleading YouTube ads portraying the President as anti-Israel.

Two-thirds of ECIPAC’s contributions in the past election cycle came from Daniel S. Loeb, CEO of Third Point Management, a New York based hedge fund. Loeb’s $100,000 in support for ECI follow his track record of falling out of love with Obama after the White House pushed for financial regulatory reforms.

On April 26, the Wall Street Journal reported on Loeb’s change of heart and quoted from an email Loeb wrote and circulated in late 2010.

“I am sure, if we are really nice and stay quiet, everything will be alright and the president will become more centrist and that all his tough talk is just words,” Mr. Loeb wrote in an email about four months ago expressing frustration with the president’s posture toward Wall Street. “I mean, he really loves us and when he beats us, he doesn’t mean it.” The email, sent to eight friends, was widely circulated on Wall Street.