Cohen Fundraising Letter for DSCC Fundraiser with Obama

President Obama will speak at a DSCC fundraiser at the home of Comcast EVP David L. Cohen and his wife Rhonda on Thursday night. Richard Vague is the co-chairman. He made a fortune in fossil fuels, then credit cards. He then founded venture capital firm, Gabriel Partners. Senator Robert Casey will be there.

Here is Cohen's solicitation email.

Some of you were at the DSCC finance committee meeting yesterday, but for those who were not, Anne Caprara, Political Director at the DSCC gave a great update on the major Democratic Senate races.  We announced that we are currently at $600K in pledges and money in the door.  The DSCC has set a goal of $750K for this event, but we all agreed that we should be able to raise $1M as this finance committee has countless times in the past for the DSCC.

Just as a refresher, here are the details of the event Rhonda’s and my home: Address blocked out.

Event co-chairs: $32,400 - 5PM Cocktails and hors d'oeurvres, followed by a very small clutch, photos and dinner/Q&A with the President (At this level you are welcome to bring a guest for the photo and dinner portions of the event).

Event sponsor: $10,000 - Per person 5PM Cocktails and hors d'oeurvres, followed by photos and dinner/ Q&A with the President

If everyone on this email would either write or raise $10,000, we would easily be able to meet our goal of $1M and have a true impact on the programs that the DSCC works every day to implement in each of the targeted Senate races which obviously proved to be a winning strategy in the 2012 cycle (and in previous cycles).

DSCC Obama Dinner Invite 11.14.13.pdf

Comcast's Cohen Saved Corbett's Struggling Reelection

When I had a chance to ask Governor Corbett a question last year at a rare press conference in Philadelphia, I said, "It looks like your policies are shafting Philadelphia." The Philadelphia Inquirer lead with my observation the next day.

That is why I was surprised that Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen, former chief of staff to Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, recently held a fundraiser for Republican Governor Tom Corbett at his home in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. The fundraiser was mostly attended by Comcast employees and prominent Republican Bob Asher.

Cohen, who has been a longtime supporter of the Democratic party, had hosted President Obama there for a fundraiser that netted $1.2 million for his reelection campaign.

Under his breath, former Governor Rendell must be muttering e tu David? Corbett is basically the anti-Rendell. He has slashed programs for the poor, suggested women "close their eyes" while having a vaginal ultrasound, outsourced the state's lottery to the British, and possibly bundled his investigation into convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky when he was the state's attorney general.

Cohen's move is also surprising because Pennsylvanians have roundly rejected Corbett gubernatorial tenure. A recent Franklin and Marshall poll has only 26% of Pennsylvanians approving of the job that he has doing.

Terry Madonna, the state's preeminent political pollster said, "Corbett has vacillated between 25-35% since taking office. These are the worst poll numbers ever for a sitting governor at this point in his administration.  Corbett's predecessors, Rendell and Ridge, were polling at 50% and 40% respectively at the same time in their administration."

He continued, "We'll see if Corbett can come back from this. Every incumbent governor, since Pennsylvania has permitted governors to run for a second term, has won. Usually, they don't face tough competition. In this case, first tier Democrats are chafing at the bit to run."

In some ways, voters have already spoken on Corbett. They elected Kathleen Kane, who made an investigation into Corbett's bumbling of the Sandusky prosecution a central part of her election platform, as the state's Attorney General in 2012. She is the first Democratic to win that office since the office became an elected one. She is the rare women to win a Pennsylvania election. Allyson Schwartz is the lone woman to represent Pennsylvania in Congress.

The support of Cohen, considered the most astute political player in the state, and Comcast for Corbett is significant. Without it, the Corbett campaign would have remained on life support. Madonna, who expects Corbett to raise $20 million for the race, did not see any dissonance in Cohen's donation to Corbett.

"David has always been a businessman in politics. He has never been overly concerned with social issues."

I sent an email to Cohen's public relations people asking routine questions like such as why Cohen supports Corbett, has he been good for business, and name one policy of his that you like. He refused to comment. I am wondering if he would defend Corbett's anti-choice views to the female employees of Comcast or defend   his abandoning of Philadelphia, whose renaissance he spearheaded.

A source close to Comcast, who attended the fundraiser, explained that "If someone is surprised at Cohen's support of Corbett, they don't know David Cohen. The fundraiser was held before Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz announced that she was running. Comcast always supports incumbents and doesn't support challengers. The electoral history of Pennsylvania suggests that an incumbent will win."

He continued, "Comcast is a business in the state of Pennsylvania. They need to be able to talk to both sides."

This is technically true. While the cable industry is heavily regulated, most of the regulation comes from the federal level not the state level.

This person did not rule out the possibility that Cohen will donate to the campaign of  Corbett's "formidable" challenger Allyson Schwartz.She appears to have declared her intentions before the other Democratic candidates.

Not waiting for Cohen's check, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz supporters are dismissing Cohen abandoning the Democrats. One said, "Corbett saw his poll numbers and terrorized a leading businessman to support him."

Rachel Magnuson, the chief of staff for the Congresswomen, was not concerned about Cohen's donation.

"Allyson Schwartz does not care about a political insider. She is hearing from Pennsylvanians from all four corners of the state and they are urging her to run," said Magnuson.

Madonna names Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bob McCord, who has won two statewide campaigns and has personal wealth that he put in the campaign, and former Congressman Joe Sestak, who only lost the 2010 Senate race against Toomey  by 2 points, as two other possible Democratic challengers to Corbett. He noted that Allyson Schwartz understood what it took to run statewide since she had previously run for the Senate and lost.

While it is too early to handicap the race, he thinks that a winnable race for the Democrats could be lost if there is a nasty primary battle. It was not all good news for the Democrats.

"Rendell was a liberal and won. But he won on the strength of his mayoralty in Philadelphia," said Madonna.

CNBC's Bartiromo: Banks Are Not Lending Because They Can't Lie

CNBC's star anchor Maria Bartiromo, the "Money Honey" was the featured speaker this morning at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Economic Outlook 2012 breakfast. Her delivery of a canned speech made it clear that the Money Honey did not want to be in Philadelphia this morning, but only came due to pressure from NBC's new owners, specifically Comcast's Executive Vice President David Cohen. (So much for Comcast's promise not to interfere with the news division.)

Being in Philadelphia, she warmed up the audience by mentioning that her family went to Penn. Interestingly, she stayed mum about having been appointed to the Wharton Business School Leadership Advisory Board by the former CEO of Citigroup's wealth management division, Todd Thomson, who was fired by Citigroup over their alleged affair.

Due to the tremendous amount of advertising dollars that the World Economic Forum drops on CNBC, she must have felt obligated to say the word Davos. However, she did not offer any fresh insights from the conference. As one breakfast attended said, "She did not have to go to Davos to give that speech."

According to Bartiromo, there is a reason that banks are not lending and it is not the bad economy. "One high level bank executive told me his bank is not lending money now because they can no longer lie on the loan documents," she said. "People have to have the financial wherewithal to buy."

She believes that the economy has started to turn around. "When I interviewed JP Morgan CEO Jamie Morgan, he said that housing has hit bottom, but will be bumping around the bottom for awhile."

Bartiromo is a big proponent of mobile technology. "There are 1 billion personal computers in the world today while there are 4 billion mobile devices. Only 400 million of those are smart phones," she said, "Many people do not yet know the potential of their phones. In Korea, they can pay for everything, board planes with their phones."

Internationally, she is concerned about the drop in China's growth rate from 11% to 8%. March 22 is the next potential default date for Greece. Although Greece is a small European country, a default would have a tremendous psychological impact on the market.

With the tremendous growth in the world's population, she is pushing commodities and mining stocks. "Demand for iron ore, gold, copper, and steel are very strong," she said.

She ended with her thoughts on education. "In America, children attend school five hours a day, five days a week when you exclude gym and lunch," said Bartiromo. "In the rest of the world, children go to school 10 hours a day, six days a week."

One of the panelists, the new president of Tasty Baking Company Paul Ridder, is also concerned about the small pool of educated workers. "With the unemployment rate over 8%, you would think that it would be easy for us to find skilled electricians and other workers. It is not," he said.

While many criticize the banks for not lending, Ridder defended the banks. "Banks are not venture capitalists. They must lend to solid businesses," he said.

Dan Calista, founder and CEO of health industry management consulting firm Vynamic, believes that for Philadelphia to grow as a business center "it can not be the murder capital of the world" and must improve conditions at Philadelphia International Airport.

Obama's Jewish Problem

Ever since Obama's May speech on the Mid East that mentioned pre 1967 borders as a starting point, Obama has been perceived as having a problem with the Jews. Media outlets such as Politico are churning out stories with dire headlines - "The Jews are abandoning Obama."

Republicans have a big incentive to win over Jewish voters. Ari Fleisher pointed out at the AIPAC conference in May, "If Republicans are successful at attracting 30% of the Jewish vote during a presidential election, they win the election."

All of the Philadelphia Democratic Jewish establishment were chairmen of the Obama fundraiser in Philadelphia on June 30 at Comcast's Executive Vice President David L. Cohen's Mt Airy home. Beside Cohen, the chairman included lawyers Daniel Berger, Alan Kessler, Ken Jarin and Mark Alderman. Jewish guests included Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Steve Cozen, and developer Israel Roizman, an Israeli who rode a tank during the 6 day war in 1967.

Kessler said, "We raised a little less than $2.5 million. (According to DNC sources, the goal was $3 million.) This was a good number considering where we are in the campaign cycle and the state of the economy. People are more focused on getting to the shore and how they are going to pay for their gas to get there than they are on the next election."

The issue of Israel came up often during the fundraising. Kessler said, "With Jewish voters who care about Israel, it took more to convince them to donate. 15-20% did not donate because of the President's comments about the pre 1967 borders."

He then walked me back from those estimates. Fundraisers often find that people who can no longer afford to give will not admit it and trot out a political reason for their lack of giving. Having been a fundraiser and a target for donations myself, I would say that this probably means that we should cut Kessler's estimate in half -7.5% -10% did not give because of the President's Mideast speech. This is still a large, significant number.

Kessler also pointed out that it will be easier to fundraise when Obama is running against someone in particular.

Steve Cozen, an ardent supporter of Israel, directly asked the President at the fundraiser about his support of Israel. He came away convinced that the President has unwavering support for Israel and its security. Cozen said, "In practically terms, this President is providing more financial and logistical support to Israel than any other administration. The Iron Dome has prevented many attacks."

Cozen believes that "some of the President's reasons for stating that the pre 1967 borders should be a starting point of the negotiations is the upcoming UN vote about a Palestinian state in September." Cozen explained, "The President does not want the United States to be the lone veto vote of the resolution. With his comments about the 1967 borders, the President hopes that he will be able to convince others to join us in that veto."

My friend, Richard Rothwharf, points out the problem with analyzing the Jewish community. "We are the only minority group that votes against our interests meaning Israel."

Berger agrees that Jewish concerns are not monolithic. He commented, "The Republicans are always trying to peel off the Jewish Democrats. Of course, Israel is an issue. But when Jews consider the commandment Tikkun Olam, (fixing the world), they have no choice but to vote Democratic."

I attended the lower minimum fundraiser ($100-$2500) at the Bellevue Hyatt earlier in the day. With the exception of Obama's base in the African American community, the rest of his base did not come out. With the $100 ticket price for younger voters (Gen 44), it was surprising that the DNC were not able to attract more of them.

Looking at a list of chairmen for Romney's fundraiser the same day, I did not see any Jewish defections from the Democratic party. The Jewish chairman included Charles Kopp, Jeffrey Orleans, Mitch Morgan, and Ira Lubert. As far back as I can remember, these 4 have always been Republicans.

Ben Smith from Politico's article on Obama may be losing the Jews, which seemed to indicate a huge problem in the Jewish community with Obama, has some problems. I specifically asked Daniel Berger about his comments in the article. Berger, who is no fan of Politico, swears he said nothing negative about fundraising for the Obama dinner to Smith. Then how was Smith able to get this particular quote?

Ben Smith stands behind his reporting. When contacted, he said, "You are, to my eye, printing an innuendo. I'll give him a call tomorrow and can share my notes if he wants. The quote is totally accurate. He said a ton of things I didn't include, as does everyone one interviews." Smith never answered my email if he had checked with Berger.

Betsy Sheerr, who works tirelessly to get women elected to public office, was a major supporter of Hilary Clinton in the 2008 election. She never really got behind Obama so her quote on this subject is meaningless.

I hope that this quells some of the hysteria about Obama's Jewish problem.