Rand Paul Begins to Raise Republican Big Money

Yet another front page piece by NYT on Rand Paul has appeared. It is somewhat critical of Rand for not having a strong infrastructure in place to raise money from big donors. At the same time, though,  the article does chronicle the amazing effort that Rand has already made to reach out for big money and the use Rand is making of Bush family operatives. Note well: Bush family operatives are not helping Rand because they have suddenly found libertarian religion.They are doing so because they have a strong belief that Rand will deliver on whatever the crony Bush family agenda is. Who is running Rand?

From NYT:

In a ballroom at the Olympic Club, a grand, early-20th-century building at the foot of Nob Hill, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, pitched a gathering of venture capitalists last week in an effort to show them that he may be the next big thing.

The session — sandwiched between start-ups selling things like liquid biopsies for cancer and a hangover remedy for people who have smoked too much marijuana — was organized with the help of Robert D. Leppo, an investor drawn to the senator’s libertarian views. Over a round of golf at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay last summer, Mr. Leppo urged Mr. Paul to reach out more aggressively to the moneyed corridors of Northern California.

“I said to him the idea of talking to angel investors’ forums would be a wonderful idea,” Mr. Leppo said. “My thinking was, let’s say you go to an angel forum where there’s 100 investors and each of them comes up with $10,000. That’s great for him.”...

 While his speeches before conservative audiences and on liberal campuses draw headlines, he also is trying to cultivate relationships with wealthy Republican contributors — vital in this pre-primary season.

He is slowly fusing the small-dollar donor base that contributed $41 million to the 2012 presidential campaign of his father, Ron, with the more traditional donors who raised millions for more mainstream candidates.

While in California last week, Mr. Paul crammed in meetings with potential contributors from the worlds of finance, technology, real estate and medicine. The state has been a ready source of campaign money: In 2010, more than 500 of his individual donors were from California; only Kentucky and Texas, where he grew up, had more. In the 2012 and 2014 election cycles, about 70 percent of his campaign money has come from out-of-state donors.

His efforts have taken him to dinners at Washington restaurants with Karl Rove and the board of the “super PAC” American Crossroads, the very establishment forces that were first threatened by his surprise election in 2010. He also has had a private dinner with the political strategists working for the interests of the billionaires David and Charles Koch. And he has traveled to donor retreats in Florida to speak to the fiscally conservative Club for Growth.

Mr. Paul professed that he did not relish raising money, but he will have to learn to embrace it. Each party’s presidential nominee is likely to have to raise $1 billion in 2016...

Between his Senate re-election committee and his political action committee, Mr. Paul raised $4.4 million last year, money that he could transfer to a presidential campaign. In comparison, Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who like Mr. Paul was elected in 2010 and is eyeing a White House bid, raised about $500,000 less last year.

John Dennis, a San Francisco real estate investor who is active in libertarian politics and helped fill Mr. Paul’s trip with meetings with potential donors, said he and the senator’s political operation were intent on raising as much money as they could.

“We put the net out there,” Mr. Dennis said. “He used his schedule well.”...

Last fall...Mr. Paul attended a Republican National Committee fund-raiser at the Central Park West penthouse of the New York Jets owner Woody Johnson...

Another top adviser to Mr. Paul said he was, in fact, building his organization, adding that in the coming weeks the senator would announce “early participants in the team,” including contributors from all 50 states. Mr. Paul has received some help in meeting Republican contributors from Mallory Factor, a wealthy businessman who convenes regular meetings of conservatives in New York and Charleston, S.C.

The senator also is receiving assistance from two major fund-raisers in his home state. Nate Morris, a wunderkind fund-raiser for President George W. Bush in 2004, has linked Mr. Paul to such figures as the billionaire investor Herb Allen. Another wealthy Kentuckian, Cathy Bailey, has helped Mr. Paul meet donors, too. ..

 Mr. Paul’s aides also have said that the senator could be helped by Jack Oliver, the mastermind behind Mr. Bush’s 2004 re-election fund-raising operation.