The crossroads of high-finance and politics used to exist only at Wall Street and Broadway. Now there’s a newer investment crowd, less buttoned-down and more likely to be found wearing deck shoes in a Greenwich marina than wing tips in lower Manhattan.
They are the hedge fund managers.
Moneyed to extremes, they operate in a lucrative but little understood corner of the financial world. For politicians, particularly Democrats, they present a conundrum – a deep source of campaign dollars made on business deals at odds with the party’s populist image and policies.
Hedge funds are virtually unregulated, and their wealth represents a vast source of potential tax revenue to meet demands on government spending. Yet the political allegiances – and donations – of hedge fund managers are tilting Democratic, the result of an evolving world view or a sense of self-preservation and real politick.
And so, hedge funds have become a burden and a benefactor in presidential politics. Democrats Chris Dodd and John Edwards have raised the most from hedge fund executives. This past Tuesday, some of the country’s top hedge fund managers helped co-host a fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York.
