Behind the scenes, candidates vie for Hollywood cash while keeping populist cred by blrshepherd, hunterw
WASHINGTON — For the Democratic 2020 candidates, there’s gold in the Hollywood Hills. The entertainment industry has long been a key source of campaign cash for liberal politicians, and the current presidential race is no exception. But as the crowded field fighting to replace President Trump goes west, it’s finding a landscape that has undergone seismic shifts with traditional kingmakers competing for influence against small donors and high-tech upstarts.
“We’re making a hard play everywhere, and California is no exception. We’re encouraged by the reaction we’ve gotten from voters all over California, across the state. You’ll see us visiting there a lot. Not just for fundraising, but also for other events and high-profile stops,” Meagher said. Owing to gaps in how political donations are reported and tracked, it’s almost impossible to say exactly how much Hollywood money has gone to help candidates. But it’s substantial. An examination of the most recent reports from the Federal Election Commission showed seven of the leading Democratic candidates took in over a half-million dollars from entertainment industry donors during the first quarter of this year. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Trump’s most recent fundraiser in Beverly Hills in April was hosted by a health care executive, Lee Samson. One of the guests told the Daily Beast there were “no celebrities” in attendance. The Trump campaign declined to comment for this story. “I don’t think it’s about having the right person show up any more,” one veteran producer said. “The Trump election got everyone very activated.”“We saw a tremendous amount of energy during the 2018 midterm cycle, with lots of new givers and raisers. There were many congressional fundraisers for individual House candidates from across the country, which is something we hadn’t really seen before,” said Spahn. “That energy is still here. It’s almost like 2018 was phase one and this is phase two.
“There was always a tradition of big bundlers in Hollywood, and I think the last election you saw more frequent smaller donor events than they’ve had in the past. It’s a larger pool of people who’ve been activated. ... The traditional mogul bundling that was in the past, it’s still there, but it doesn’t feel like it’s the only way to go,” the veteran producer said.
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