Prez coming home for fundraising Oct. 27
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama returns home to Chicago on Oct. 27 for high-dollar fundraising to benefit the Democratic National Committee and the campaign fund that bankrolled his 2008 and 2012 White House bids, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Obama is also likely to do an event to benefit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — the Senate political operation backing the 2016 Illinois Senate bid of Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.
Obama’s campaign fund is in debt and still paying for polling and other research and other items, the latest Federal Election Commis- sion records show.
Obama will headline what is billed as an “intimate dinner” hosted by D’Rita and Robbie Robinson, who is an executive at BDT Capital Partners. The tab for the Robinson event is $10,000 per person to attend; $33,400 per person to co-host.
The contributions will go to a newly created committee, the Democratic Hope Fund, which FEC records show was created on Sept. 15. The Democratic Hope fund is a joint fundraising committee that funnels the donations to the Democratic National Committee and Obama for America, the main Obama/Biden campaign committee.
FEC records show that as of June 30, that fund was $2,443,426 in debt and so far in 2015 has spent $1,786,393 in operating expenditures. In June, Obama for America paid $7,139 to David Binder Research. Binder has long provided data to the Obama team. The purpose of the June payment was polling, according to FEC records.
The Obama for America fund has a valuable asset: its lists, which it rented to the Chicago-based Organizing for Action for $250,000.