They may be popping champagne corks over at the headquarters of the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads Republican money machine after the Huffington Post reported the group snagged Obama 2008 bundler Ken Griffin, according to the latest FEC report.
But a simple Google search uncovers that all that glitters is not political gold when it comes to Griffin, a hedge fund founder from Chicago and a rich donor who raised big cash for President Obama and his rival John McCain in the last presidential election.
Here’s how Chicago Magazine once described Griffin’s donor profile:
Griffin has hedged his political bets, giving money to politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Representative Paul Ryan and Senator Tom Coburn, both Republicans, and the Democrats Rahm Emanuel (both for Congress and for mayor) and Senator Evan Bayh. Nonetheless, the preponderance of the donations has gone to Republicans.
Emphasis added. So Griffin is certainly no Democratic ideologue, though his shift away from fellow Chicagoan Obama was noted by ABC News back in 2010, when Griffin first started donating to American Crossroads. But as ABC reported, Obama wasn’t getting all of Griffin’s financial love back during the 2008 race:
Though he was notable as a “bundler” who raised big sums for Obama, Griffin has donated millions to politicians from both parties over the years, including writing a check to Obama’s 2008 rival, Sen. John McCain.
The donations tracking site OpenSecrets was down when this post was written, but a cached version of McCain’s 2008 bundler list clearly shows Griffin on it.
So while it’s certainly true that Obama has seen some of his 2008 bundlers stand aside this time around, there’s really nothing new to be found in today’s Griffin story, despite the HuffPo headline.
