Two of the guests at an exclusive brunch in Charlotte Wednesday where Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel attempted to steer donors toward Priorities USA, the super PAC supporting President Barack Obama's reelection campaign, are seasoned campaign bankrollers -- one of them with a past that leans Republican.
A look at the campaign giving histories of New York investor Orin Kramer and Chartwell Hotels CEO George Tsunis, identified by the New York Times as having heard Emanuel's official debut as a pitchman for the super PAC, gives an example of the type of donors Democrats are targeting as they try to catch up with the cluster of super PACs backing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. One sign of stepped-up urgency on the part of the president's party: Emanuel, who served as Obama's first White House chief of staff, has just given up his honorary post at the Obama campaign to spearhead the drive for super PAC donations. Federal law prohibits super PACs from "coordinating" with candidate committees though the ban so far has been loosely interpreted, as Emanuel's past affiliations attest.
