Giuliani, McCain Almost Equal in Industry

Updated

It looks as if Rudy Giuliani just barely beat John McCain when it came to raising money in the entertainment industry in the first quarter, according to our initial analysis of their finance reports.

Our prelimary estimate --- yes, this is pretty wonkish --- shows that Giuliani raised $162,800 in entertainment circles to McCain's $162,100. Giuliani and McCain were considered the most likely Republicans to draw significant support from such areas as film, music, theater, cable and broadcasting. We've corrected this post from previous figures to hash out whether a significant batch of writers fall in or out of the industry.

We've yet to add up Romney's totals, but they include Pat Boone and Tovah Borgnine. Hillary Clinton recently filed her report, showing a record amount of $26 million raised, and almost $31 million of cash on hand. Other campaigns were feverishly trying to file by the midnight deadline.

Among Giuliani's donors were studio execs like Paramount's Brad Grey and Rob Moore, former heads Frank Price and Frank Mancuso, attorney Bruce Ramer, Brillstein Grey CEO Jon Liebman, Bernie Brillstein, broadcaster Stanley Hubbard, actor Kelsey Grammer, Ben Stein, John O'Hurley, RKO's Ted Hartley, director David Zucker and writer-producer Lionel Chetwynd. Giuliani also shows significant strength in a related field --- advertising --- where he raised almost $50,000.

McCain's $162,900 from entertainment circles was boosted by donors from the cable industry, as well as those from Univision. Until recently, one of McCain's campaign finance chairs, Jerry Perenchio, controlled the broadcaster. Almost a quarter of McCain's entertainment total --- $36,000 --- came from Univision employees. Other donors of note: "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels, MGM CEO Harry Sloan, Comcast's Ralph Roberts, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Jeff Sagansky, DreamWorks chairman Roger Enrico, Walt Disney Studios chairman Richard Cook, Fox Broadcasting's Jon Nesvig, MGM's Rick Sands, Liberty Media's John Malone, singer Andy Williams, Magnolia Hill's Sam Haskell and Hartley. McCain, who as a member of the Senate Commerce Committee has long established ties to broadcasters and cable execs, also received donations from the NCTA PAC and the EchoStar PAC. Not included in this total, but certainly notable, was a contribution from Tracinda Corp.'s Kirk Kerkorian, former owner of MGM.

It is widely expected that they will show many in the industry gave multiple contributions, even across party lines. Endeavor's Adam Venit gave to Giuliani, even though he has been one of John Edwards' key donors, hosting an event for him at his home in March. He co-hosted the highly publicized fund-raiser for Obama, but David Geffen also gave to Edwards.

Meanwhile, Obama's campaign is still glowing in great publicity for the $25 million it raised in the first quarter, and the Washington Post looks in particular at how he managed to draw not just a huge number of Internet donors, but members of the Democratic Party's financial elite. Among them is Jeffrey Katzenberg, who last week attended a strategy session with the candidate at a D.C. hotel.

Write Matthew Mosk and John Solomon: "Less well-known is the story of how he built a more traditional fundraising machine fueled, in part, by some of the biggest names in Democratic politics.

'It is the single easiest fundraising phone call that I have ever made, ever,' said Katzenberg, the Hollywood producer, who set out to raise half a million dollars for Obama and raised more than $1.7 million. 'In 25 years. Literally. For charity, politics, anything. It kind of blew me away; if I made 100 phone calls, 90 of them were successes.'"

The big fund raiser that Katzenberg, Geffen and Steven Spielberg threw for Obama was closed to the press, but Men's Vogue's Hudson Morgan paid the $2,300 to get in, and files a play by play for the latest issue. From unnamed sources, there's grousing about Geffen, criticism that Obama's speech was underwhelming and doubts that politicians ever take Hollywood seriously. Best quote is a friendly jibe that Michelle Obama makes onstage about her husband: "For some reason this guy still can't manage to put the butter up when he makes toast, secure bread so that it doesn't get stale, and his five-year-old is still better at making a bed than he is. So you'll have to forgive me if I don't understand this Barack Obama thing."