Charter School Bundlers Help Favored Candidates With Donor Math

Another article along the same lines:

 

At a small Spanish restaurant in midtown, then-Assembly Member José Peralta was peppered with questions by a group of about a dozen hedge fund managers.

 

What was his battle plan to defeat recently expelled State Sen. Hiram Monserrate, whom Peralta was taking on in a special election? What were his specific positions on the issues surrounding charter schools, the hedge funders' pet cause?

 

Peralta's answers apparently left a good impression: between March 1 and March 15, Peralta received at least a dozen checks from hedge fund managers ranging between $5,000 and $9,000, helping provide the fuel for Peralta's landslide victory.

-------------------------

Charter School Bundlers Help Favored Candidates With Donor Math

 

Overlapping structure of non-profits and PACs fuel education reform support for legislative candidates

Chris Bragg

Tue, 27 Jul 2010

www.nycapitolnews.com/news/126/ARTICLE/1778/2010-07-27.html

 

"A good first date always helps," explained Joe Williams, executive director for the pro-charter umbrella group Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) and a former Daily News education reporter, who helps coordinate efforts among the donors. "If they like the guy, they contribute. If they don't, they don't."

 

In Manhattan restaurants, penthouses or in the boardroom of DFER, such meetings with supportive lawmakers and potential candidates have become increasingly frequent as charter backers gear up for the 2010 elections. And though such meetings between interest groups and candidates are common, these efforts are striking for how much cash they can inject, and how quickly, into a campaign they support, despite their relatively small numbers. Many of the donors also serve on the boards of charter schools, and say they are ideologically attracted to the cause because the schools promote the type of entrepreneurial spirit with which they built their own businesses.