Subject: ICYMI: Financial Sector Gives Hillary Clinton a Boost
From: Michael Briggs <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 9 May 2016 12:27:32 +0000

Wall Street Journal: Financial Sector Gives Hillary Clinton a Boost

By Brody Mullins and Rebecca Ballhaus

Hillary Clinton is consolidating her support among Wall Street donors and other businesses ahead of a general-election battle with Donald Trump, winning more campaign contributions from financial-services executives in the most recent fundraising period than all other candidates combined.

The Democratic front-runner has raised $4.2 million in total from Wall Street, $344,000 of which was contributed in March alone. According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of fundraising data provided by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, the former secretary of state received 53% of the donations from Wall Street in March, up from 32% last year and 33% in January through February, as the nominating contests began.

The analysis of campaign-finance reports shows that some Wall Street donors have shifted their financial support from Republican candidates who dropped out of the race, such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, to Mrs. Clinton in recent months.

Mr. Trump, by contrast, hasn’t garnered more than 1% of Wall Street contributions in any month through March.

To be sure, it is still early in the general election money race, and Mr. Trump hasn’t aggressively pursued the finance sector for funds so far. He self-financed about three-quarters of his primary campaign and said last week that he planned to more actively solicit donations for the general election in order to keep pace with Mrs. Clinton.

Already, some Wall Street donors have said they plan to back him, including billionaire investor Ken Langone and hedge-fund founder Anthony Scaramucci. Last week, Mr. Trump named as his national finance chairman Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs employee who now serves as CEO of hedge fund Dune Capital Management.

Still, Mrs. Clinton’s ability so far to draw the support of business donors, even those who lean Republican, suggests she is reversing the flow of Wall Street money toward the GOP ever since big banks, investment firms and hedge funds fell out of favor with President Barack Obama.

In the 2012 presidential election, the financial-services sector donated more than any other industry, topping $90 million in total contributions to campaigns. Some three times as much of that Wall Street money went to Republican nominee Mitt Romney as to Mr. Obama.

Mrs. Clinton’s popularity on Wall Street could prove a liability with some liberal voters, as primary rival Bernie Sanders has attacked her for being too cozy with the financial industry. But winning back a sizable chunk of money that went to Mr. Romney four years ago would likely give Mrs. Clinton a big fundraising advantage in the general election.

Campaigns aren’t required to disclose their fundraising for April until later this month. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has said it raised a total of $213 million through April, and Mr. Trump’s campaign raised $49 million through March, $36 million of which came from his own personal loans.

An analysis by the nonpartisan organization Crowdpac found that more than 500 donors, including many Wall Street executives, who gave more than $200 to a Republican who later dropped out, including Messrs. Bush and Rubio, have since given to Mrs. Clinton. More than one-third of the money that business interests have donated to presidential campaigns has gone to Mrs. Clinton’s coffers, the Journal’s analysis found.

Andrew Weinstein, a former Republican strategist and adviser at the Securities and Exchange Commission, said that companies “hate uncertainty around tax, regulatory and trade policy” and so may steer clear of backing Mr. Trump.

“Business interests are generally not sold on the notion that Trump will be a more business-friendly candidate; there’s a lot about Trump they don’t know,” said Ed Rogers, a Republican lobbyist. “They know Hillary. And they know that she is not antibusiness.”

Mario Paredes, until recently an investment professional at Merrill Lynch, had been a lifelong donor to Republican candidates, last year donating to long-shot presidential candidate George Pataki, a former New York governor. As Mr. Trump began to emerge as the top Republican vote-getter, Mr. Paredes reversed course and donated the maximum amount allowed to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.

“I have changed my mind,” said Mr. Paredes, who has since left his job as head of Hispanic outreach at Merrill Lynch. “I cannot accept some of the statements of Mr. Trump, especially related to Hispanic Americans.”

Even some donors who previously backed Mr. Trump have since changed their minds. Ralph Herzka, CEO and founder of the investment advisory firm Meridian Capital Partners, is among the couple hundred donors who have donated the maximum to Mr. Trump’s campaign, giving $2,700 late last June. He appears to have since soured on the real-estate billionaire, donating twice that amount to Mrs. Clinton in January—$2,700 for the primary, and another $2,700 for the general. Mr. Herzka declined to comment through a spokesman.

The shift in money from financial-services executives to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign comes as other big GOP donors are now staying neutral.

Earlier this year, some of the Republican Party’s biggest donors began spending millions against Mr. Trump. A group of major Wall Street contributors including Paul Singer of Elliot Management Corporation and Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management have helped an anti-Trump super PAC raise $16 million through the end of March. The family of Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade, gave $5.5 million. With the nomination fight essentially over, the group has gone quiet.

One of the biggest pro-Republican super PACs in the last presidential election, American Crossroads, says for now it plans to focus on Senate races and is still considering whether to get involved in the presidential race.

The super PAC backing Mrs. Clinton, Priorities USA Action, is also heavily backed by Wall Street donors, who gave $18.7 million to the group through March, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. No other industry has given more to the super PAC.