For Obama's second inaugural, fund-raising limits lifted
1. For Obama’s second inaugural,
fund-raising limits lifted
By David Uberti | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JANUARY 11, 2013
SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Officials expect 600,000 to 800,000 people to attend President Obama’s Jan. 21 inauguration
ceremony.
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s inauguration planners are embracing a
Groupon-like “daily deal” concept to scrounge up scarcer-than-expected donations, but
this is not about discount inaugural burritos or half-off Joe Biden merchandise.
Instead, one of the latest deals — with “only 25 packages available” and a 5 p.m.
expiration — offered a candlelight reception with Obama, Biden, and their wives.
The price? A cool $50,000.
Four years ago, that was the maximum donation accepted for Obama’s inauguration,
which touted such limits as evidence of its ethical standards. Now, it’s a bargain.
Politics
2. Individuals are being asked to contribute up to $1 million, and the ban on corporate
donations has been lifted.
Obama’s lifting of limits on inaugural
fund-raising has led to criticism that he
has gone from a candidate calling for an
end to business as usual in Washington
to one who is embracing the big money
he once said he would reject.
“It’s another instance of Obama not
living up to the talk that he talked,” said
Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for the
government accountability group
Common Cause. “It’s never too late to
turn back. But this was a relatively easy
and simple way to put some muscle
behind his words.”
Inauguration organizers, however,
defend the decisions as pragmatic. The
president’s $1 billion campaign wrung donors dry, they say, while this round of
inaugural fund-raising still declines money from lobbyists or political action
committees.
The Presidential Inaugural Committee’s “goal is to make sure we are able to meet our
fund-raising obligations for this civic event in a way that comports with this
administration’s commitment to transparency and to not accepting contributions from
lobbyists and PACs,” committee spokesman Cameron French said in a statement.
Obama’s 2009 inauguration, a history-drenched affair featuring the nation’s first
African-American president, had little trouble drawing donations. The event attracted
an estimated 1.8 million people to Washington, costing $53 million, with private
donors funding 10 balls, the parade, and entertainment.
Taxpayers, meanwhile, pay lesser costs that are deemed necessary by Congress. The
2009 swearing-in ceremony cost the public $1.24 million, and a similar amount will be
billed this year, according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural
3. SHAWN THEW/EPA
Construction workers on the inaugural
platform, which will be the largest ever
built and will hold 1,600 people.
Ceremonies. Security across Washington, Maryland, and Virginia totaled more than
$100 million and was paid by federal and local governments.
Obama’s inaugural team said in 2009 it would
have high standards when it came to collecting
money, pledging it would underscore the
president’s “commitment to change business as
usual in Washington and ensure that as many
Americans as possible, both inside and outside
Washington, will be able to come together.”
The 2009 inaugural attracted people such as
Steve Gutherz, a Cambridge-based immigration
attorney, who drove with his wife from their
home in Sudbury and “slummed at people’s
houses” to witness history, he said.
“I felt like it was the end of a dark area,” said the 56-year-old, who donated $1,000 to
attend an inaugural ball after the swearing-in ceremony. “There was great optimism
and hope. . . . It was an American experience.”
But this time, Gutherz said he will neither attend nor donate to the president’s second
inauguration, as the novelty has worn off and intensity died down.
“It’s not because I’m disappointed with the president at all,” Gutherz said. “It’s just
that I did it. I don’t need to do it again.”
While an allotment of $60 tickets to inaugural balls for average Americans sold out in
minutes, the elite can still don a tuxedo or gown and show up as long they pay the
minimum $10,000 for a special event package.
Analysts say it is not surprising that the Obama team had to loosen the rules to collect
enough money for a second inaugural.
“There’s a certain amount of difficulty going back to small donors again and again and
again,” said Peter Ubertaccio, chairman of Stonehill College’s Department of Political
Science and International Studies.
District of Columbia officials expect 600,000 to 800,000 supporters to attend the Jan.
4. 21 ceremony, less than half the number of four years ago. Festivities have been cut
from four to three days this year, and the number of official inaugural balls has been
cut from 10 to two.
Most notable was the administration’s
decision last month to accept corporate
cash and $1 million individual donations.
Organizers are soliciting big-dollar
contributions for various ticket packages
providing access to special events,
naming the practice after four of the
nation’s founders.
This year, top-level George Washington
donors — individuals paying $250,000
and institutions breaking $1 million —
get reserved parade seats and tickets to an inaugural ball, among other perks. John
Adams donors, despite paying a $150,000 starting price, don’t get reserved bleacher
seats.
Purchasing the Thomas Jefferson and James Madison packages, starting at $75,000
and $10,000, respectively, affords only “special,” but not “premium,” event access.
All four levels of presidential packages do provide access to a “Finance Committee
Road Ahead Meeting,” which suggests another push for contributions.
Corporate cash and top-shelf ticket packages and daily deals are not the only changes
from 2009. The Presidential Inaugural Committee previously disclosed donors,
including their hometowns and contribution amounts, a month before Obama was
sworn in.
But the committee’s first disclosure this year came last Friday evening, when it
published on its website about 400 benefactors, including a handful of corporations.
The list included neither donation amounts nor benefactors’ employer or hometown,
information the Federal Election Commission requires within 90 days after the event.
“Obama was not only disclosing a lot more [in 2009], but he was bragging about it,”
said Kathy Kiely, managing editor of the open-government advocate Sunlight
