With Foes Like These, Frank Doesn’t Need Friends

by

The New York Times’ Dealbook blog writes of a fundraiser we didn’t have in our Party Time database. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., co-author of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act, held a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser on Wall Street. Writes the Times:

Representative Barney Frank proved Tuesday night that it never hurts to ask, even when you are asking longtime foes to fork over cash.

The Massachusetts Democrat held a Wall Street fund-raiser on Tuesday, less than a year after authoring the Dodd-Frank Act, a sweeping crackdown on the financial industry.

While some bankers saw the event as a striking display of chutzpah, even by Wall Street standards, other industry players were not about to miss the chance to hobnob with one of the nation’s top financial cops.

JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all dispatched officials to the event, hosted by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, one of Wall Street’s most vocal advocates on the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law.

Frank’s “longtime foes” are among the top donors to his campaigns over the years–among industries, Securities and Investments Houses, Real Estate, Insurance and Commercial Bankers rank one, two, three and five, respectively (lawyers and lobbyists come in at number four). Among individual firms, Frank foes in his top twenty career donors include the likes of FMR Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase and Co., Bank of America and State Street Corp. And the sponsor–one of the most vocal advocates on Dodd-Frank, is also among Frank’s most generous career supporters. (Huge thanks to the Center for Responsive Politics for these numbers.)

Incidentally, Frank supported the amendment to delay implementation of a rule to cap swipe fees charged to merchants by debit card issuers (the measure failed in the Senate this afternoon). Among that measure’s biggest supporters: The Credit Union National Association and the American Bankers Association. Both are top donors to Frank.