The Obama campaign has dispatched Bill Clinton to raise money from a secretive group of big-money liberals.
Clinton will speak before the Democracy Alliance today in an effort to haul in multi-million dollar Super PAC donations for Obama’s Super PAC, Priorities USA, according to the New York Times.
Bill Clinton will headline a lunch in New York to benefit Democratic groups. His audience will be members of the Democracy Alliance, a consortium of liberal donors, many of whom have been reluctant to make large contributions to Super PACs this year.
Far from being reluctant, the Alliance is prepared to raise $100 million for liberal groups and campaigns in 2012. Clinton is not the only Democratic VIP to make a presentation to the group. Following the 2010 Republican midterm sweep, Vice President Joe Biden beseeched the Alliance to begin pumping money into Obama’s reelection fund.
The group lifted its prohibition on campaign giving two months later and numerous members have since increased their contributions to the Obama campaign from 2008 levels, including several six-figure donations to Super PACs.
The Alliance operates on a venture capital model, selecting a handful of liberal organizations to receive its big-money donations. Members of the invitation-only group pledge to give $200,000 to the favored groups, which increasingly have close ties to the White House—the Center for American Progress and Media Matters each enjoy favored status. It does not disclose its recipients or members, who are forbidden from speaking to the press. The Alliance did not return numerous requests for comment.