Hillary, Giuliani have the inside track to hedge fund money

[Herman Munster]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/business/25hedge.html?hp&ex=1169701200&en=74c3f488031e04c3&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Lisa Perry loves Hillary Rodham Clinton. So much so that two large portrait photographs of the senator by Chuck Close grace the hallway of her 1960s-themed penthouse apartment on Sutton Place in Manhattan. “It’s a beautiful picture because Hillary is beautiful,” said Ms. Perry, a top Democratic fund-raiser, whose husband, Richard, runs a prominent $12 billion hedge fund. “I will be there for her emotionally, and I will raise.” There are no Pop Art portraits of Rudolph W. Giuliani in the home of Paul E. Singer, a longtime hedge fund executive and a primary fund-raiser and policy adviser to Mr. Giuliani, but his support is no less ardent.

“Rudy Giuliani is the right leader for the times,” Mr. Singer said. Hedge fund money, which now exceeds $1 trillion, has emerged in the last several years as a potentially powerful force in politics, as underscored by the significant role it is playing in the presidential aspirations of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Giuliani. During the 2006 election cycle, executives who work at the 30 biggest hedge funds made $2.8 million in contributions to political candidates or party committees, almost double the amount in 2000.

Yet it is not just the money they donate directly that makes people in hedge funds attractive to campaigns. They also offer access to other potential donors in the financial world, which in recent election cycles has become one of the biggest sources of political contributions. That pipeline has made it easy for well-connected candidates like Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Giuliani and Senator John McCain to consider forgoing public funding. (Mrs. Clinton has done so; Mr. McCain is expected to opt out; and Mr. Giuliani has not yet addressed the topic.) And top candidates for the 2008 campaign are expected to raise a lot of money quickly — at least $100 million each by the end of this year by some estimates.