The Billionaire’s strategy behind all those small individual donations Obama receives

[moobu2]

Ms. Pritzker, a leading member of the Chicago dynasty that owns the Hyatt hotel chain, has raised the money largely by focusing on the little guy. The campaign has tapped more than one million donors.

A Novel Strategy
Ms. Pritzker, who works for the campaign as a volunteer, began working closely with Julianna Smoot, a hard-driving Southerner who is Sen. Obama's in-house finance director. They laid plans to reach out to wealthy donors, a target of most campaigns and a group well acquainted with the Pritzker name. David Geffen and Oprah Winfrey, for example, held lucrative fund-raising dinners.
But Ms. Pritzker and the team decided to focus mainly on an often-ignored corner of the fund-raising world: first-time donors and small donations.
She divided the country into 13 regions and gave the regional chiefs freedom to make decisions without having to get everything approved by headquarters. The policy made it easier for the regions to build relationships with smaller donors.



The campaign gathers emails and contact information from donors and rally attendees, then uses it for more fund raising. Under its "recurring gift" program, it offers to withdraw $25 a month from donors' accounts until they reach the legal limit of $2,300 for a primary. The campaign says only 2.4% of donors have reached that mark. "Operation Give Again" identifies donors who have given at least $500 and asks them to give to the limit. (The Clinton campaign recently stepped up efforts to recruit small donors.)
It was Mr. Friedman and Alan Solomont, a Boston-based donor, who brought Ms. Pritzker the idea to train first-time fund-raisers. She moved quickly to set up a weekend boot camp for bundlers, dubbed Obama University. Held in a Chicago hotel, it featured panels such as "Hunting vs. Farming" and "Four Ways to Raise Money." Students are told how to ask for money from their relatives without starting a family fight, and how to solicit from business colleagues without running afoul of campaign-finance laws. Two sessions have already been held, and another is planned.

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[C_U_L8R]

1. I gave to Obama for the first time yesterday

and it felt great !! Take THAT Hillary !

ERIN GOBAMA !!

[blogslut]

2. The Obama campaign is tight

The small donor thing is brills. Gotta give some love to Howard Dean for opening people's eyes to the power of Internet donations.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

10. Yup

I gave to Howard over the internet in small doses and I'm doing the same for Obama. It'll be a long time before I reach my legal limit, and I suspect it's true of many others. Obama basically has a bottomless pit from which to get money, while Hillary was taped out until she caught on to the new politics of asking regular voters to finance her. Hmmm, I wonder if she will feel as beholden to those regular voters as she does to those richie riches who financed most of her campaign.

[zalinda]

3. This line told me all I need to know about Obama

Students are told how to ask for money from their relatives without starting a family fight, and how to solicit from business colleagues without running afoul of campaign-finance laws.

That is the core of his campaign, deceit. I don't trust him, and this is just one of the reasons why. I can't believe that you think this is okay. I don't trust that before Iowa he had almost as much money as Clinton, and yet he had just declared. Where did all that money come from? Don't any of you care or want to know?

zalinda

[olkaz]

4. err....

Do you think the Clinton campaign doesn't encourage raising money from their families?

I mean, do you honestly believe that?

[NDambi]

5. Well at least they have them asking...unlike the $3K..Hills camp stole from a voter

and then didn't want to give it back.

Talk about sneaking and dishonest.

[moobu2]

6. It's creepy like some cult.

[tpsbmam]

7. I fail to see how that qualifies as "deceit."....

I've gotten fundraising appeals from friends & family associated with both campaigns and I've send my own out to friends/family who haven't contributed yet to either candidate. And BTW, though I'm an Obama supporter I've encouraged friends and family to pick a candidate and contribute to one of them. So am I being deceitful when I, without starting a family fight, encourage people to contribute to HRC? Would I be deceitful if I did the same with business colleagues? What if I have friends from work over for dinner and we discuss politics and I encourage friends from work to get involved, no matter which candidate they choose? And if I then encourage them to choose Obama, what then?

This kind of partisanship truly doesn't help either candidate IMO.

[zalinda]

14. I don't like either one of them, and Obama the least.

I don't trust him. While it may not be deceit, it sure is manipulative. I don't like his false preacher speak. I don't like him. Give me a Jesse Jackson, and I would work for him, I have worked for him. But, Obama, never. He reminds me of another Bush, just "left wing".

zalinda

[Schema Thing]

8. Not one word that you quoted indicates "deceit" of any sort.

[blogslut]

9. How is it deceit?

Sounds to me like wise instruction. Campaign volunteers should absolutely be trained to fund raise without inciting anger or violating the law.

Is it the word "student" that upsets you? You think the Obama campaign is indoctrinating fragile minds into its evil army? Have you never hear of training? Even political campaigns hold training session. Obama's campaign training just happens to be productive.

[WolverineDG]

11. Nah, they just have their big donors shake down

those who are dependent upon their business for donations, ala the Cantu Construction in Texas.

dg

[mckeown1128]

12. What do you mean "where did all the money come from?"

Candidates... have to disclose all of it... Do you not know this??? What is wrong about convincing one's family to donate? Since when is that a crime?

opensecrets.org

[Orsino]

13. Unforgivable.

Soliciting donations with careful attention to campaign finance law? Never, ever let him forget this. Never trust him again!

:rofl:

[sudopod]

15. HOLY SHIT

He's trying to get people to campaign for him to their family and colleagues!

That bastard!