Re: sorry to bother...

From:gthrush@politico.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2015-04-30 20:00 Subject: Re: sorry to bother...

No worries Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u Please don't share or tell anyone I did this Tell me if I fucked up anything Insiders expressed confidence in Dennis Cheng, the campaign’s relatively unknown campaign finance director, whose selection was seen as a signal the campaign was avoiding another mistake of ’08: The empowering of celebrity donors who crowded out the younger, more aggressive bundlers who helped power Barack Obama’s money machine. Yet in recent days, as Clinton has assessed her daunting challenge, it’s become clear that the force behind the fundraising operation is campaign chairman John Podesta, who has been quietly cultivating big donors and coordinating fundraising strategy. Podesta, people close to the campaign, supports the Cheng-led strategy of creating an army of small- to medium-scale campaign bundlers – a “flat” fundraising structure that would give donors the sense of ownership in the campaign. Podesta jokingly refers to himself as the “Sultan of Flat,” but the older generation of Clinton fundraisers and donors interviewed over the past two weeks said they believed the new structure would eventually give way to a more conventional fundraising apparatus that would empower mega-donors on the coasts. Managing the friction between the old lions of Clinton fundraising – who have no use for the flat org chart -- and younger players Cheng hopes to recruit won’t be easy. Cheng recently angered several former Obama fundraisers by offering them their old regional finance jobs – even though they had gone onto to bigger, more lucrative careers in Washington over the years; They turned him down, according to a former Obama campaign official. Cheng has also been trying to reassure Obama bundlers and even former lower level Clinton Administration aides, who have now grown to have successful careers, that they won’t be left. "Their sense is that unless they raise zillions of dollars, they're never going to be noticed and certainly never going to infiltrate their already tight-knit inner circle, so why bother," one New York-based fundraiser said. "Everyone knows who Clinton's inner circle is, that they are going to raise a boat load of money with relatively little effort, and that there is little that can be done by a new person to make their mark Sent from my iPhone On Apr 30, 2015, at 3:06 PM, John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com<mailto:john.podesta@gmail.com>> wrote: Sure. Sorry for the delay I was on a plane. On Apr 30, 2015 9:44 AM, "Glenn Thrush" <gthrush@politico.com<mailto:gthrush@politico.com>> wrote: Can I send u a couple of grafs, OTR, to make sure I’m not fucking anything up? -- Glenn Thrush Chief Political Correspondent, POLITICO Senior Staff Writer, POLITICO Magazine Cell (call first): 202-731-4974<tel:202-731-4974> Desk: 703-647-8543<tel:703-647-8543> http://www.politico.com/reporters/GlennThrush.html OTR: not sure what you mean by the first issue. I'm the sultan of flat. My whole pitch is all are welcome and grow the network. On Apr 29, 2015 11:38 AM, "Glenn Thrush" <gthrush@politico.com<mailto:gthrush@politico.com>> wrote: Hey sir— sorry to bother — OTR question Was working on a fundraising story (when Maggie and Matea’s stories popped) Been talking to bundlers who told me that one of the reasons you need to get HRC out on the road was simply that the Hillfunders mid-level strategy was getting enough traction and you had to mine the old 08 crowd a little quicker than u thought… Also- to be a pain in the ass — I’ve heard that u were never entirely on board with the whole ‘flat’ idea in the first place. Cheers/Thrush -- Glenn Thrush Chief Political Correspondent, POLITICO Senior Staff Writer, POLITICO Magazine Cell (call first): 202-731-4974<tel:202-731-4974> Desk: 703-647-8543<tel:703-647-8543> http://www.politico.com/reporters/GlennThrush.html