Posted on 10/25/2004 7:11:30 AM PDT by SierraWasp
Kerry gains more Wall Street support
But fund raising from financials still trails broad support
By David Weidner, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 12:06 AM ET Oct. 25, 2004
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - As Election Day nears, Sen. John Kerry has narrowed the financial gap between himself and President Bush on Wall Street.
Kerry's campaign fund-raising efforts on the Street, headed by Citigroup's Lou Susman, are being outmatched by Bush by about 2 to 1, according to numbers released this week. But that's down from 3 to 1 in May.
The gap stands in contrast to national fund raising where Kerry, who has raised $311 million, has essentially tied the president, who has raised $338 million in donations, according to the latest data available on Opensecrets.org.
Spillover from a lackluster economy?
Despite the fact their man still lags the president, Democrats are trumpeting the Wall Street support as evidence that business has soured on the president's economic policies and the lackluster growth in the economy during the last year.
"It's not news that Wall Street, which is a national community, still remains a little more Republican than Democratic," said Robert Altman, chairman of Evercore Partners and senior economic adviser to Kerry. "What is news is how much the gap is closing."
In all, Bush has collected $7.9 million from individuals at securities and investment firms, $5.2 million from miscellaneous finance professions and $3 million from commercial bankers.
Kerry has collected $3.8 million from the securities industry, $2.3 million from financial professionals and $1.2 million from commercial banks.
Shift in sentiment
That's good enough for the Democrats who have carried water for Kerry to the financial institutions.
"Wall Street used to be monolithically Republican, I mean 95 (percent) to 5 (percent)," Altman said. "And today for generational reasons as well as political reasons it's much less so."
Of course, the Bush campaign doesn't see Kerry's momentum as evidence that business has soured on the president. Christine Iverson, a spokeswoman for the campaign, pointed out that momentum or not, the president still leads.
She called the suggestion Kerry had the support of Wall Street "silly."
"The economy is doing better," she said. "And the president is enjoying the support of those confident in his economic policies and that the turnaround will continue."
Hedging their bets
Both Kerry and Bush have drawn support from a broad base of firms as each side tries to hedge its bets in what is statistically a dead heat.
Kerry has collected $286,250 from Goldman Sachs (GS: news, chart, profile) employees, $264,131 from Citigroup employees and $194,865 from J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM: news, chart, profile) employees, according to Oct. 4 data from Opensecrets.org.
Meanwhile, Bush has collected $591,230 from Morgan Stanley (MWD: news, chart, profile), $564,304 from Merrill Lynch and $368,100 from Goldman Sachs.
Wall Street firms make up five of Bush's seven top donors and Wall Street - securities and investments - is the top industry donor after real estate and attorneys.
But since Kerry has narrowed the gap, does he run the risk of alienating voters who think he will be beholden to their interest? Another Kerry supporter, Democrat Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, doesn't believe so.
"I represent a working class district," he said. "And I know that I can't be for good jobs and not be for business."
So much for the "rich" corporations in cahoots with the President/Republicans. Ahhhhh...sKerry--the candidate of the "little" guy! (sarcasm/off)
Because the cost of regulation is so high it is almost impossible to start a brand new media or finance firm from scratch, and therefore the the margins of the existsing players are protected from competition.
Republican policies are much more favorable to small and medium sized businesses, while Democratic policies tend to result in favorable outcomes for established corporations in many fields.
Anything that comes from CBS "news" is trash. They have zero credibility.
I'll second that. There is nothing in that article to support the title.
They're trying to point out "the generational thing," that they so desperately hope to be true. Liberals are trying so hard to move the ball forward on all fronts in a perpetual "full court press!"
That's their long-term strategery and what helps them "keep hope alive," don'tcha know... They keep waiting for all that government schooling to put them in total control of our society.
They suck.
Pure BS.
Lenin said the capitalists would sell the communists the rope they would use to hang them. I guess it's still true. Screw wall street.
Kerry will likely get less than 5% of the wall Street vote.
"Anything that comes from CBS "news" is trash. They have zero credibility."
my thoughts exactly. as soon as i saw cbs as the distributor, i figured this was a forged story.
"I know from experience that most big business men LOVE big government. They buy influence there. Subsidies and tax breaks are their goals in order to marginalize smaller businesses. They also use regulation because they can afford it and their smaller competition cannot. "
i do not doubt you for a minute. the edges of our gov't are filled with folks trying to buy influence. of course, that does not make it ethical. bit gov't is the problem.
I think both parties suck when it comes to doling out favors to big business. If the government didn't need robust economic growth to pay for their corruption, they would have never given breaks to small businesses.
That's a pretty terrific tagline you've got there!!! I'm nominating it for Taglinus FreeRepublicus!!!
It's probably no surprise that I got it from one of Reagan's quotes.
Oh well... Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?
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