Top Democratic Fundraiser Sides With Obama ... link

[Alhena]

You probably never heard of Alan Solomont, but he is one of the biggest fundraising fish and after Kerry bowed out he got calls from all the candidates, including Hillary:

•Alan Solomont, who raised more than $35 million for John Kerry's 2004 White House bid, is weighing his options. Solomont said he's getting so many calls about 2008 that his wife jokes "my phone number is written on the restroom wall of the Capitol."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-16-dems-money_x.htm

Today, the Boston Globe just reported that Solomont sided with Obama:

One of John F. Kerry's chief fundraisers, Alan D. Solomont, said today he has signed on to help the presidential campaign of Illinois Democrat Barack Obama despite his long-standing ties to another Democratic hopeful, Hillary Clinton of New York.

Solomont, who led a group that raised $35 million in New England alone for Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2004, called Senator Clinton "an enormous talent who would be a terrific president" but said Obama, her Senate colleague, is "the sort of person America wants right now in the White House."

Solomont, who lives in Weston, has been contacted by several candidates in the Democratic field with whom he has relationships, and said he held off until Kerry announced his decision this week that he would not run again. He said he would help Kerry's campaign for reelection to the Senate next year.

One of the most prolific fundraisers in this region, Solomont, by his own account, has "a long history with the Clintons," dating back to 1992 when Bill Clinton won his first term as president. "I put my heart and soul into several Clinton campaigns," he said.

In 2000, President Clinton named Solomont to serve on the board of directors who oversee AmeriCorps and two other national service initiatives.

But Solomont said he has been deeply impressed by Obama, whom he first met in 2004, when the then the then-state senator from Chicago was seeking the US Senate seat. "What has impressed me is the excitement that his name and candidacy evokes in people who are not necessarily political junkies the way I am."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/blog/2007/01/top_kerry_fundr.html?p1=MEWell_Pos3

[goclark]

1. Good news nt

[Alhena]

2. Here's some more info about Solomont ...

http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2004/06/01/the_4_million_man?mode=PF

If you're Alan Solomont, even poetry is political.

By his own admission, he is a partisan, dyed-in-the-wool, forged-in-the-'60s liberal Democrat who has long put his money -- and that of many, many others -- where his mouth is. Solomont estimates that he has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the Democratic Party and assorted philanthropic causes. In April, in his capacity as Massachusetts finance chairman of the Kerry campaign, Solomont spearheaded a record-setting fund-raiser for Kerry in Boston that netted more than $4 million yet relied primarily on small donations.

"I wish he was a little less good at his job," Republican strategist Ron Kaufman says with a sigh. "I'm just glad he's in Massachusetts and not in some key battleground state."

...

Yet it is as a political fund-raiser that (Solomont) causes the most visible ripples. He boasts a wide network of donors, and he is a reliable donor himself, adding to his credibility, Johnston says, when it comes to asking others for money. Any national Democratic officeholder who comes to Boston -- be it Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, or House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi -- is virtually certain to ask Solomont to hold a fund-raiser, and Solomont is virtually certain to oblige. Local and state candidates also regularly seek his aid -- as did, of course, Kerry.

Cameron F. Kerry, John Kerry's brother and confidant, says the Kerry campaign is counting on Solomont's savvy as "somebody who's operated at the national level in Democratic party politics before." Under Solomont, Cameron Kerry says, the Massachusetts finance operation has raised more money for the Kerry campaign "than maybe any other part of the country, including New York."

Says Cameron Kerry: "Alan has organized it, he's kept a lot of people on target and motivated, and he's been generous with the credit -- in a game in which you get a lot of people with their elbows out trying to get credit."

Activist and insider
Solomont simultaneously shrugs off and revels in his image as an ace fund-raiser. "I'm not good-looking or smart enough to do much else, but I certainly know how to raise money," he says. "It isn't all that hard; it isn't rocket science. It comes down to a passion for what you're doing." His demeanor veers from jokey to party-line earnestness, as when he says of the countless hours he devotes to a task few would relish: "People often ask me: 'What do you get out of this?' I say: 'I get a better America.' "

[ripple]

3. Awesome news! n/t

[rhombus]

4. With HRC stranglehold on big donors, Obama has a long way to go (Video)

http://www.deletehillary.com/strangleobama.html (pardon the link source)

HarbBall discusses the behind the scenes maneuvres.

[Alhena]

5. Obama has Hollywood, Chicago donors, Soros, now Solomont ...

and perhaps most crucially, tv programs can't get enough of him. Anytime he wants he can pick up the phone and be worshipped on Oprah for an hour- how much do you think it would cost to buy that kind of airtime? It's priceless.

Obama probably won't win (though he has a decent chance), but I don't think it will be because of lack of money, because he can circumvent that with his media presence.

I think the lack of money is really going to strangle everyone else- John Edwards is a solid candidate with a good message, but he's going to have a very hard time getting it out to the public. He won't have nearly the media profile that Obama has.