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Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's take for spending the day with Los Angeles Democrats is on target to total $3 million, Tina Daunt says at the Hollywood
Reporter. The most productive time was tonight's fundraiser at the Beverly Hills home of Haim and Cheryl Saban. That dinner event took in $1.9 million, Daunt was told. The earlier lunch in the Pacific Palisades area raised more than $810,000. A morning gathering in Westwood was worth $270,000 to Clinton's campaign chest. There was a smattering of protesters in Beverly Hills, per Fox 11.
From the Hollywood Reporter story:
The 250 guests who attended that midday gathering in the backyard of the Pacific Palisades home of Steven and Dayna Bochco and co-chaired by Sim and Debra Farar included Norman Lear, Diane Lander Simon, Neil’s ex, actor Mike Manning, 2 Broke Girls’ Beth Behrs, producer Chuck Lorre, Democratic Rep. Karen Bass, newly elected Rep. Ted Lieu and Homeland’s Howard Gordon and wife Cami. Farar, who spoke to the group, was the finance chair of Clinton’s unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign.
Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced Clinton, who spent a bit more than 15 minutes answering guests’ queries during a wide-ranging question-and-answer session. Clinton joked that “If I get to be president, I can tell you without fear of contradiction that if elected, you will never see my hair turn white in the White House. I’ve dyed it my whole life.”She also addressed the issue of income inequality and her granddaughter Charlotte. As president, she said, she would work to “give all the people in this country the same opportunities my granddaughter would have.” Clinton also described how she has been inspired by her working-class mother, Dorothy.
Evan Halper in the LA Times Washington bureau says the fundraising trip west — Clinton was in the Bay area yesterday and returns there tomorrow — made news in a way that the former secretary of state likely didn't want.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign team had hoped to frame her trip hopscotching through the mansions of some of California's deepest-pocketed donors this week as an exercise in modesty, highlighting the relatively low price of a ticket to the events as a reflection of her commitment to cultivating the grass roots.But that narrative quickly unraveled when word got out that the candidate was also using the California trip as an occasion to begin courting an entirely different group….
The candidate will be pushing the boundaries of campaign finance law further than any Democratic presidential contender ever has by directly asking donors to give to a friendly “super PAC” that can raise unlimited amounts of campaign cash from donors, according to a person familiar with her plans….
Clinton would not be the first contender in this year's race to go after such cash. On the Republican side, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been soliciting checks for as much as $1 million for his super PAC. Candidates avoided such activity in the 2012 race, adhering to a law that says they cannot coordinate directly with the groups. (Bush, though, has not yet declared his candidacy and is free to work with the group until he does so.)
The New York Times broke the story of the "super PAC" strategy, saying it's "the first time a Democratic presidential candidate has fully embraced these independent groups that can accept unlimited checks from big donors and are already playing a major role in the 2016 race."
File photo from Hillary for America campaign.
