Top Hillary Donor Directly Pressures Dean: "Exercise Some Leadership" On Florida And Michigan
By Greg Sargent - March 15, 2008, 10:31AM
Top fundraisers for Hillary Clinton have begun to exert direct and personal pressure on DNC chair Howard Dean, urging him to show more leadership to bring about some sort of resolution to the Florida and Michigan vote standoffs.
In an interview with Election Central, venture capitalist Alan Patricof, a member of Hillary's finance committee and one of the Democratic Party's most influential fundraisers, said that he'd privately urged Dean to do more to get the Florida and Michigan delegations seated -- something that's crucial to the Hillary camp's hopes of closing the gap with Obama.
"I've expressed to Dean my feeling that it's critical that this matter be resolved on a timely basis," Patricof says. "The voters in Florida and Michgan cannot be disenfranchised."
"He's got to exercise some leadership, and the sooner, the better," Patricof continued. "This is a party issue. We cannot afford to alienate this large a voting population in two very important states."
That such an influential fundraiser is unhappy with the DNC could prove problematic, since the DNC of course relies on such figures to keep the money flowing in.
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