Avenue Capital’s Marc Lasry will be attending the Democratic National Convention, along with other Wall Street executives. | AP Photo Wall Street takes a road trip to Philadelphia Financial services donors crowd the Democratic convention, raising the ire of progressives.

NEW YORK — Wall Street is taking the Acela down to Philadelphia this week.

Hordes of industry executives will descend on the city to celebrate Hillary Clinton’s nomination for president and renew close associations that vexed the Democratic standard-bearer throughout her primary battle with Bernie Sanders.


Goldman Sachs, which paid Clinton millions for private speeches, will be well represented in Philadelphia with executives Jake Siewert, a former Bill Clinton press secretary, making the trip along with Steven Barg, Michael Paese, Joyce Brayboy and Jennifer Scully, who was a major fundraiser for Bill Clinton in New York in 1992.

Blackstone, one of the nation’s largest private equity firms, will hold an official reception in Philadelphia on Thursday featuring its president, Tony James, sometimes mentioned as a possible Treasury secretary in a Clinton administration.

Hedge fund managers and top Democratic donors including Avenue Capital’s Marc Lasry and Boston Provident’s Orin Kramer will also be on the scene, as will Morgan Stanley executive and former top Clinton aide Tom Nides. Executives from Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and other large banks will also prowl the streets and barrooms of Philadelphia.

The financial contingent will be in an especially good mood following Clinton’s selection of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate. Kaine has shown a willingness to fight for regional bank relief from the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. But more than that, he’s not Elizabeth Warren, the potential VP pick that long had Wall Street terrified.

Republicans with ties to the financial industry will also be there, a sharp contrast to Donald Trump’s convention in Cleveland, which Wall Street largely shunned over fears of the GOP nominee’s populist agenda on trade, immigration and Wall Street reform.

“So much of what happened in the GOP primaries and the chaos at Trump events around the country had them thinking about whether to have a presence in Cleveland and deciding not to,” said Kevin Madden, a top Mitt Romney aide in 2012 and now a partner at Hamilton Place Strategies, which advises banks. “All these images created a great deal of uncertainty that they don’t have in Philly.” Madden will be in Philadelphia this week.

The banker anxiety only grew during Trump’s convention as the party rolled out a platform plank calling for the re-imposition of a Depression-era Glass-Steagall law that could force banks to break up into smaller pieces.

Wall Street groaned as Clinton moved to the left during the primary — especially on trade — but the industry remains far more comfortable with the idea of another President Clinton in the White House than a President Trump.

“I think she has shown, perhaps ironically, that she has a better understanding of business and Wall Street than Donald Trump does,” said Steve Rattner, an investment banker and Democratic donor who will make the short Acela ride to Philly. “The GOP platform includes reinstating Glass-Steagall. And when you watched that [Trump acceptance] speech, Bernie Sanders could have given half of it. Putting partisanship aside, most of my Republican business friends are appalled at the thought of Donald Trump in the White House.”

So while the Clinton camp won’t boast about it, given the continuing unpopularity of Wall Street and the populist tilt of the electorate, the City of Brotherly Love will be the City of Banker Love this week. The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for a comment.

Trump is likely to try to continue to exploit Clinton’s connections to the banking industry. On Saturday, following the Kaine selection, Trump tweeted: “Tim Kaine is, and always has been, owned by the banks. Bernie supporters are outraged, was their last choice. Bernie fought for nothing!”

Bankers supporting Clinton insist it’s not because they expect favorable treatment from her administration. Indeed, they note that she has staked out tough positions so far including supporting a Department of Labor rule hated by the industry that would put tougher restrictions on investment advisers. She’s also pushed for a tax on some kinds of high-frequency trading and for reinstating a Dodd-Frank rule that banks despise and spent millions of dollars trying to repeal that would force them to move derivatives trades into separate units.

“Wall Street doesn’t really side with a party based only on where regulation is going. We live in an environment where we know there is regulation and that we are under scrutiny,” said Robert Wolf, an investment banker and major Democratic fundraiser who will be in Philadelphia. “The bottom line is that if the economy does better, finance does better and everyone does better.”

But progressives, already dispirited by the Kaine selection, will be watching the Philadelphia convention closely and continue to resist any efforts by Clinton to stock a potential administration with Wall Street insiders.

“I don't think Clinton can or should go all Trump-like and build a wall to physically block Wall Street executives from the City of Brotherly Love,” said Jeff Hauser, director of the Revolving Door Project. “Instead, I think she ought to be loud and clear that she isn't going to do anything in particular to reciprocate any banker support. Sanders showed that a Democrat can thrive financially without Wall Street, and in his hypocritical and ham-handed fashion, Trump's spasmodic anti-Wall Street bursts show the general election downsides of hobnobbing with the likes of Tony James, Blair Effron or Larry Fink.”

Effron is an investment banker and Democratic donor, and Fink is the CEO of investment giant Blackrock. Both are occasionally mentioned for senior roles in a Clinton White House.

But Clinton has not showed Sanders’ ability to tap into a massive grass-roots network of small donors and remains reliant on Wall Street cash to fund her campaign, making it difficult for her to shun bankers at her convention.

Gary Gort, a set carpenter, adjusts a sign before the 2016 Democratic Convention on Sunday, July 24, in Philadelphia. | AP Photo

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Clinton and outside groups supporting her have raised $375 million so far in the 2016 cycle. The securities and investment industry is one of her top sources of cash, donating $40 million to her cause so far, according to the CRP.

And after a dismally slow start, Trump has shown some fund-raising strength of late. The GOP nominee ended June with $20.2 million in the bank, just short of the $22.5 million that Romney had on hand at the same point in 2012. That’s still about half what Clinton had in the bank at the end of June but represents a dramatic improvement on the $1.3 million balance Trump showed at the end of May.

And Trump’s selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate has shored up support for the GOP nominee among mega-donors like Sheldon Adelson who could single-handedly fund an independent advertising barrage against Clinton.

In some ways, Philadelphia will reveal the delicate dance Clinton has to do with the ascendant progressive wing of the party and the still-critical Wall Street donor base. On stage, the left will be heavily represented with prime-time speeches from Sanders and Warren.

But in the background, the “Rubin wing” of the Democratic Party, named for Wall Street executive and former Bill Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, will be circulating through panel discussions, Democratic party committee events and cocktail parties.

Larry Summers, a Harvard professor and former Rubin protégé who also served as Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, will take part in a POLITICO discussion on the economy on Wednesday along with Neera Tanden, a close Hillary Clinton adviser and president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, a think tank some on the left now view as too centrist.

Progressives will be prowling around these events, looking to push back on anything they consider too pro-free trade or soft on banking regulation. But at least some on the left say they believe anyone looking for signs of a Rubin-wing restoration in Philadelphia will go away empty-handed.

“Clinton’s positions as they have evolved over the last year show she is not going to be soft on Wall Street,” said Dennis Kelleher, CEO of financial reform group Better Markets. “She’s for restoring the [derivatives reforms] and closing loopholes in the 'Volcker rule,'” which limits banks’ ability to engage in risky trading and investment. “She’s not going to deliver for Wall Street like some people fear, and her nominees are going to be decidedly not weighted to finance.”

Indeed, one senior lobbyist for a large bank said Wall Street executives going to Philadelphia in hopes of eventually playing a big role in a potential Clinton administration are fooling themselves. “She’s going to start her administration by picking a big fight with the left and nominating a bunch of Wall Street people?” the lobbyist said. “That’s crazy. It’s never going to happen.”