The rise of the baby bundlers is adding a face-to-face dimension to tactics used in 2004 to spur an explosion of Internet donations. (Photo courtesy Nicola R. Heskett) Small donors rewrite fundraising handbook

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On a table near The Cashew’s upstairs bar, Nicola Heskett is laying out an array of pens and donor information forms as Jason Moehlman strolls in, still sweaty from the muggy evening’s air.

He slaps down a $20 bill to cover the recommended contribution for the Kansas City Lawyers for Barack Obama Happy Hour. “Uh, would you mind using your credit card? I think it’s a little cleaner,” says Heskett, 36, a first-time, small-time bundler for Obama who is helping to rewrite political fundraising playbooks this cycle.


The rise of the baby bundlers — people who ask friends and family to donate for a candidate and then direct the money to the campaign — is adding a face-to-face dimension to tactics used in 2004 to spur an explosion of Internet donations.

The influx of these new players, combined with unorthodox appeals by the candidates, also is fundamentally reshaping the parties’ donor bases.

The surprising end result could be that the Democratic nominee will buck historic trends and have a significant financial edge in a cycle when the nominees alone are expected to spend an unprecedented $1 billion.

Obama on Monday e-mailed supporters to report he had 75,000 new donors in the third quarter, which ends Sunday.

That figure nearly matches the entire Republican field’s donor base in the first six months of the year.

According to an August analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute done in partnership with Politico, 87 percent of the donors to Democrats in the first six months of this year didn’t give money to any candidate in the party’s crowded 2004 primary, the first presidential race after passage of the McCain-Feingold reform law that put a premium on limited individual donations.

There’s also a significant infusion of new blood on the GOP side: Among Republican givers, 89 percent of donors did not give to President Bush in his 2004 reelection race.

That figure could reflect two trends: the engagement of new donors such as those backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney from the Mormon community and the fatigue or disenchantment of Bush-Cheney donors.

Several high-ranking members of the president’s 2004 campaign finance team haven’t written a single check to a 2008 candidate.

Beneath those broad numbers lies harder evidence suggesting a Democratic financial tsunami is building.

The total number of donors who gave more than $200 in the first six months of this year to Democrats was 137,388 compared to 81,075 givers to Republicans, the Campaign Finance Institute study found.

If history serves as a guide, many of those primary donors will be inherited by the party nominee next year, much as Democrat Howard Dean’s Internet activists stuck with nominee John F. Kerry in 2004.

“The Democratic nominee will begin with an unprecedented fundraising base and will be able to draw on the unprecedented fundraising bases of other Democrats. That will make for a very powerful force,” said Anthony Corrado, a political fundraising expert who serves on the Campaign Finance Institute’s board.

The primary engine behind the Democratic gains is the upstart campaign of Obama. His new face and soaring rhetoric draws huge crowds on the campaign trail that can turn thousands of $5 donations into real money.

At a June event in Seattle, more than 3,500 people attended a public rally at the WaMu Theater, and a few hundred joined a higher-dollar reception.

The combined events generated more than $500,000, said Michael Parham, a Seattle attorney and first-time presidential fundraiser who serves on Obama’s national finance committee.

A month later, more than 100 people nibbled raspberry Jell-O Rice Krispies Treats in a doctor’s backyard in western Michigan, a normally reliable Republican region.

Obama made a few remarks and mingled casually with the crowd that delivered about $120,000 to his campaign, said Patrick Miles Jr., 39, a Harvard University classmate of Obama’s and another first-time presidential fundraiser.

Miles brought along his Republican secretary and her 18-year-old granddaughter. “It wasn’t the same old crowd,” said Miles.

In a nutshell, Obama is beating all competitors in every category — number of donors, cash raised, cash on hand — except one.

Only Democrat John Edwards has a smaller percentage of big donors — those who gave the maximum $2,300.

But, when actual people rather than percentages are measured, Obama takes that title, too, with more than 9,600 maximum givers compared to Edwards’ roughly 3,000 big donors.

Obama’s fundraising prowess has thrust him into top-tier status and forced Clinton to watch her back — even though the Chicago lawyer has yet to overtake the former first lady in national and early-primary-state polling.

Like the other major candidates, Obama recruited experienced fundraisers. But, more so than his competitors, he opened the door to newcomers. Now, the rookies are producing cash at a clip that is astonishing veteran campaign finance experts.

According to the Campaign Finance Institute analysis, 55,755 people gave more than $200 to the Obama campaign in the first six months of this year.

That is at least double the number of donors for every other candidate — Republican or Democrat — except for Clinton, who had 36,307 donors.

During the same six-month period in 2003, President Bush had 19,289 donors who’d given more than $200, and Kerry had 9,862, the institute found.

Yet those figures only scratch the surface of Obama’s strength. His campaign says — and other camps don’t dispute — that its total number of donors as of June 30 was 258,000.

That means about 202,000 people gave him less than $200 in the first six months of this year.

Small change? Think again. According to campaign financial disclosure reports, Clinton raised $4 million from donations under $200, and Romney reported $3 million.

Edwards’ small checks amounted to $5 million and Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani gathered less than a million from the little guys.

In contrast, Obama raised $16.4 million, or 29 percent, of his record-breaking second-quarter total of $57 million from those small donors.

And that’s what brings us to The Cashew bar in downtown Kansas City and the small group of young lawyers who are sipping beer with orange slices floating on top.

Heskett’s transition from Democratic voter to presidential fundraiser mirrors the path of many of this year’s new players, as her frustration with the Bush administration shoved her into action.

Her first vote for president was cast for Bill Clinton in 1992. After that came jobs, marriage and a mortgage, leaving scant room for political activism.

In 2000, she voted for Al Gore and was upset by the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Florida recount that gave Bush the White House. But “not upset enough, looking back,” she says.

In 2004, Heskett attended a house party, donated a few hundred dollars and voted for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. When Bush won, she was stunned and angry at herself.

“I was embarrassed to think I could put on a bumper sticker and vote and think that was all the skin I needed to put in the game,” she recalls.

In 2006, she put out yard signs for favored candidates, donated more money, attended events and started “getting into the habit of talking about politics.”

It wasn’t natural, or easy, since her other partners in the law firm, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, include plenty of Republicans.

As this year’s season approached, Heskett decided she wanted to campaign for a candidate rather than just against one.

While watching the Sunday morning talk shows, she was surprised to hear conservative George Will praise Obama’s second book, “The Audacity of Hope.” She read it and was intrigued.

She began reading Obama speeches and was drawn to his diplomatic tone and skills. In April, she signed on to help the campaign.

In early May, the Missouri Obama fundraising team put on its first big event: A major rally downtown followed by a smaller, high-dollar fundraiser at a converted condo building.

Heskett, who has contributed the maximum $2,300, was among the high-dollar givers.

The combined events raised $100,000.

Since then, Heskett was included in another small gathering with Obama, and she’s hosted a handful of low-dollar, laid-back events with other young lawyers. Overall, she estimates she’s raised between $15,000 and $20,000 for his campaign.

About 10 attorneys attended the recent happy hour event, donating varying amounts that added $320 to Obama’s bottom line.

When asked why he became a first-time presidential donor, Moehlman, 32, runs his fingers through his short black hair, sighs and says: “I hate Bush.”

An attorney with Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus, he hastens to add that he also is a fan of Obama and credits the campaign for sending the message that even his modest cash contribution is welcome. “You feel it might make a difference,” he says.

Standing nearby is his law firm colleague, John Paul McGurk, 28, who invited Moehlman to the event. McGurk has been volunteering for campaigns since college, when he worked for his Republican history professor’s unsuccessful bid for Congress.

With two friends in Iraq and another in Afghanistan, his opposition to the war prompted him to donate to a Democrat. With stakes so high, “it feels like these elections matter now,” he says.