The anxieties, expressed in back corridors and late-night bar-stool conversations, spilled into public view Wednesday with the announcement that Obama’s former White House chief of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, was quitting his honorary position with the president’s campaign to devote his time to helping raise big-dollar contributions for a pro-Obama super PAC called Priorities USA Action…
As Obama aides have stepped up their efforts to draw in some of the country’s most well-heeled financiers and philanthropists, some of the conversations have ventured into unusual terrain.
Senior White House adviser David Plouffe listened intently during one session in May as a billionaire donor sought his help for a proposed rule protecting captive chimpanzees. Another participant pressed him about White House action to protect same-sex couples.
Several fundraisers said in interviews that they are battling a reluctance among well-heeled Democrats to contribute big checks to super PACs, in part because Democrats, including Obama, were originally wary of these new entities.
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