How Jeffrey Katzenberg became the Democrats' bell cow

A long piece called Access Hollywood in the current Mother Jones examines Jeffrey Katzenberg as the latest deep-pockets kingmaker, "a recurring character in American politics" through the years. The story starts with Katzenberg being wooed by Paul Begala and three other Democratic operatives the night of March 23, 2011, in a private dining room upstairs at Scarpetta in Beverly Hills. They wanted Katzenberg to be the bell cow that leads the rest of the herd to the right destination. He went on to raise or give himself $30 million for President Obama's reelection, "helping Hollywood make up for Wall Street's plummeting financial support of the president" and becoming the biggest Obama backer in California. Most of the money went to Priorities USA Action, a super-PAC that targeted Mitt Romney long before he sewed up the Republican nomination.

The Republican primaries were nearly a year away, but the four politicos believed that Romney would end up the nominee, so they would focus on him and ignore the rest of the field. They would attack him using the same approach employed by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and other groups in 2004. "Just as the conservatives took away Kerry's war record," Begala said, "we're going to take away Romney's strongest asset: his business record."

Katzenberg, who is worth an estimated $800 million, liked what he heard. By the end of dinner, he pledged $2 million to the super-PAC, later named Priorities USA Action, and promised more money down the road—no strings attached. He also offered to tap his network of wealthy friends and colleagues. And he picked up the tab.

Begala had found his bell cow. "It was the most important meeting of the entire campaign," he told me recently. "If you tell people, 'Jeffrey's behind this, Jeffrey's helping us,' man, that really helps."

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"It's hard to think of any other donor going back to the [1990s] or even further who did what he did," says Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation. "He's like soy sauce in Chinese food: He's everywhere."

Mother Jones illustration: Robert Risko