The Wall Street Journal-20080202-Politics - Economics- Goldman Hedges Political Bets- Executives Shelled Out For Clinton- Obama- Lesser Sums for GOP

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Politics & Economics: Goldman Hedges Political Bets; Executives Shelled Out For Clinton, Obama; Lesser Sums for GOP

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WASHINGTON -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., renowned for its prescience in financial markets, has fully hedged its bets in the competition between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Executives at Goldman -- the firm that is the single richest source of contributions overall so far in the presidential contest -- gave Sen. Clinton at least $362,000 last year, an initial analysis of newly available data shows, while her rival Sen. Obama took in at least $321,000. Thirty-four Goldman employees gave to both the Democratic front-runners.

The firm spread lesser sums among the Republicans, including more than $195,000 to former investment banker Mitt Romney, some $99,000 to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and about $77,000 to front-runner Sen. John McCain.

Goldman employees gave at least $1.2 million to the 12 major candidates in 2007, according to a database of more than $477 million in contributions to the major presidential candidates compiled by The Wall Street Journal. The database incorporates new data on financial contributions in the fourth quarter of 2007, just filed by the campaigns this past week.

Michael Duvally, a Goldman spokesman, declined to comment.

Overall, Sen. Clinton led in the contributions for the year; she took in more than $118 million, compared with Sen. Obama's $104 million. Mr. Giuliani, now out of the race, took in $62 million, Mr. Romney $55 million, and Sen. McCain $42 million. Sen. Clinton's financial lead is more striking because she also had more cash on hand at the end of the year than anyone, $38 million, compared with $19 million for Mr. Obama and $13 million for Mr. Giuliani.

The data show that connections, perhaps more than ideology, are the key to campaign cash. For example, Sen. Clinton's biggest single backer is DLA Piper, a law and lobbying firm that is part of an extensive network of Democratic consultants, fund-raisers and strategists. The firm's staff sent at least $407,000 to Sen. Clinton over the course of the year, including $116,000 in the final quarter.

The firm has more than 3,600 lawyers in more than 25 countries. It has dozens of lobbying clients in Washington, including Amazon.com, Goldman Sachs and Pentagon contractor First Kuwaiti General Trading. A DLA spokeswoman didn't return calls.

DLA is allied with a political consulting firm called Dewey Square Group, which is run by a group of former Clinton campaign veterans and Clinton administration officials, Dewey, a unit of WPP Group PLC, also has many lobbying clients, including mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's top source of cash was people who work for the state government of New Mexico. Mr. Richardson has withdrawn from the race.

The exception to this pattern is Sen. Obama, who relies to a striking extent on small donors and new support such as the employees at Google Inc., who poured more than $50,000 into his campaign in the year's final weeks.

But even for Sen. Obama, the finance industry was still the richest source of cash overall, a reflection of the industry's dominance of the American economy in recent years. After Goldman, his next-largest supporters for 2007 were executives from UBS AG (at least $230,000), Citigroup Inc. ($207,000) and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ($206,000).

Among all the presidential candidates, finance companies constituted eight of the 10 top sources of contributions, while the other big players were law and accounting firms. The staff and faculty of Harvard University provided at least $277,000 in gifts. Executives from technology rivals Google and Microsoft Corp. each gave more than $225,000. Google employees sent Sen. Obama more than $135,000 overall, while Microsoft leaned toward Sen. Clinton with more than $129,000.

The campaign of Sen. McCain, which struggled financially for most of the year, got a much-needed boost from a handful of businessmen and companies to whom he has developed close ties through his chairmanship of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over mergers- and-acquisitions issues, among other things. Former Goldman Sachs executive John Thain, now chief executive of Merrill Lynch & Co., has been a key fund-raiser for Sen. McCain for nearly a decade. Merrill is Sen. McCain's biggest single source of funds, with executives giving more than $140,000.

For former New York Mayor Giuliani, who withdrew from the race Wednesday, the biggest engine of campaign money was accounting firm Ernst & Young. Executives at Ernst & Young gave Mr. Giuliani at least $275,000 in 2007.