Obama, McCain Donors Among The Whos Who of Massachusetts Big Business, from Josh Bekenstein to

As the Democratic National Convention (http://www.demconvention.com/) begins in Denver this week, with the Republican National Convention (http://www.gopconvention.com/) following soon after, increased focus is being placed on the high-profile businesspeople backing the campaigns of Senators Obama and McCain (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080806/pl_afp/usvotefinance). While both candidates can count members of Boston’s elite among their supporters, a breakdown of major campaign contributions reveals a great deal about the differing political viewpoints of the Massachusetts business community (http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/0 ...). A look at the top Massachusetts contributors to the 2008 McCain-Obama Presidential Election reveals Bain Capital (http://www.baincapital.com/), with $809,920 overall in aggregate campaign contributions collected from individuals and political action committees within the company, to be the biggest single corporate donor in the state (http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/08/26/tapping_deep_pockets_of_support/). Of all nonprofit donors, Harvard University, with $890,869 in total contributions, ranks first in Massachusetts. Among corporate contributors in the Boston area, Bain Capital is followed by Fidelity Mutual with $715,425 (https://www.fidelity.com/) and Liberty Mutual (http://www.libertymutual.com/) with $567,960 in total contributions to both campaigns. Bain Capital’s donations to the 2008 presidential campaign are also notable because of the high visibility of Bain’s individual contributors. Among them are prominent Massachusetts businesspeople like Bain Capital Managing Director Josh Bekenstein (http://www.baincapitalprivateequity.com/team/index.asp?viewType=ByRegion&d_Bio_ID=67), who is a major donor to the Barack Obama (http://www.barackobama.com/) campaign. Bekenstein has contributed to both sides of the political spectrum (http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/joshua-bekenstein.asp?cycle=08), having donated to former Bain Capital executive Mitt Romney’s (http://www.mittromney.com/) Presidential campaign during the Republican primaries (http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/josh-bekenstein.asp?cycle=08). Other business bigwigs like Hill, Holliday (http://www.hhcc.com/) chairman emeritus Jack Connors, Boston Celtics (http://www.nba.com/celtics/) managing partner Wyc Grousbeck, MFS Investment Management (https://www.mfs.com) chairman Bob Pozen, and former FleetBoston Financial Corp. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FleetBoston_Financial) chief executive Chad Gifford join Josh Bekenstein in this list of Massachusetts’ leading executives who have contributed to the Barack Obama Presidential campaign. Although Massachusetts is widely regarded as one of the more Democratic-leaning states in the country (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040802/pierce), John McCain (http://www.johnmccain.com/) can also count many Boston-area business giants among his ranks of supporters. Although many Massachusetts Republicans initially put their support behind McCain’s rival Mitt Romney in the primaries (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/01/bush_base_yet_to_rush_to_donate_to_mccain/), a number of them have now put their support (and money) behind McCain (http://michiganformccain.blogspot.com/2007/02/massachuetts-republicans-turn-to-mccain.html). Among McCain's business donors in Massachusetts are Akamai Technologies Inc. (http://www.akamai.com/) executive chairman George Conrades, EMC Corp. (http://www.emc.com/) cofounder Dick Egan, New England Patriots (http://www.patriots.com/) owner Robert Kraft, Boston Scientific Corp. (http://www.bostonscientific.com/) cofounder Peter Nicholas, and Genzyme Corp. (http://www.genzyme.com/) chief executive Henri Termeer (http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/08/26/tapping_deep_pockets_of_support/). Although the lists of donors, both Republican and Democratic, to the 2008 Presidential campaign swell with some of Massachusetts’ most powerful businesspeople, it appears that Obama’s campaign is attracting more of them. Between January 2007 and July 2008, Obama took in $786, 143 from Massachusetts CEOs, Presidents, and other top Executives. In that same timeframe, McCain took only $357,026 (http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/08/26/tapping_deep_pockets_of_support/).

Name*:
E-mail*:
Captcha*:
Text*: