Well-Trod Path: Political Donor to Ambassador
21/01/2013 8 comentarios
When President Barack Obama hosted dozens of his top donors at White House in late November for a celebratory post-election dinner of chicken and pumpkin pie, few in the room could claim to have done more to elect him than Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue magazine. And after raising millions of dollars for Obama, Wintour had a prize in mind, according to several people close to the White House: appointment as ambassador to Britain, United States’ most prestigious diplomatic post. But by the time Ms. Wintour returned home to New York, officials had told her the job in London would almost certainly go to someone who had done even more for Obama: Matthew Barzun, a genial former technology executive who spent 20 grueling months as finance chairman of the president’s national fund-raising operation. As Mr. Barack Obama begins his second term in the White House, the donors and bundlers who raised more than a billion dollars to get him there are pressing hard for appointments. The sheer scale of Obama’s fund-raising machine has led to an especially intense scramble for plum ambassadorships, with as many as 300 people vying for just 30 or so positions, according to several people involved in process. “The president now has six years of relationships, not two years,” said Andy Spahn, a public relations and political consultant who, along with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the film producer, was Obama’s top Los Angeles fund-raiser. “So I expect that it will be a lot more competitive this time around.” Interviews with more than a dozen donors, Democratic officials and advisers involved in discussions revealed some unspoken rules: Volunteer for more than one country. Be prepared to serve for only two years, so that a second round of envoys can be appointed before Mr. Obama leaves office. Don’t mention how much money you raised for the campaign (but don’t expect much if you didn’t raise at least a million dollars). Let it be known where you want to go, but don’t publicly campaign for the job. “You have to find balance between waving the flag to get your name out there, waving the flag so much you smack people in the face with it,” said Jonathan Prince, former State Department official under Obama. Nearly every aspiring ambassador contacted for this article did not return phone calls or declined to comment about any interest in specific jobs. But speculation about who is in line for what often makes its way into the press; last month, Hollywood Reporter published names of several West Coast donors said to be on Obama’s short list for diplomatic posts, a list as closely scrutinized by Hollywood for who wasn’t on it, other donors said, as for who was (…..)
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/us/politics/well-trod-path-political-donor-to-ambassador.html