Hedge Funds Head For the Hill(ary)

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is the force behind the Democrats hedge-fundraising activities in this election season, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The center, reports Marketplace, notes that for the first time in a dozen years the Blue Party is seeing more green than its red counterpart, 51% to 48%, and the “special factor” is Clinton, who’s received “much” of her war chest from hedge funds. The center reports that two out of every three HF campaign dollars have gone to the Democrats, coming from such firms as Renaissance Technologies, Soros Fund Management, Tudor Investment, Avenue Capital, D.E. Shaw, Perry Capital and Farallon Capital, which all are leaning blue. The only identifiable Republican-leaning firm, according to Hassan Nemazee, national finance chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, is Elliott Associates. And it’s not only hedge funds that are going Dem; Joe Schocken, CEO of Seattle-based Broadmark Capital, told Marketplace that “private equity and other alternative investment groups are giving more.” He notes, “when the party that has no power is raising more money than the party in power” – some estimates put it at $25 million more than the Republicans – “that is a significant statement about the direction of the country.” Now any student of U.S. history knows which party is more likely to enact new regulations, so it would not be surprising for hedge funds to try to curry favor with the Democrats, would it?