Obama Campaign Chief Messina Seeks to Assure Wall Street Donors

Obama Campaign Chief Messina Seeks to Assure Wall Street Donors
By Hans Nichols
February 13, 2012

Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, assured a group of Democratic donors from the financial services industry that Obama won’t demonize Wall Street as he stresses populist appeals in his re-election campaign, according to two people at the meeting.

At the members-only Core Club in Manhattan, Messina provided a campaign briefing last night for some of the president’s top donors, including Ralph Schlosstein, chief executive officer at Evercore Partners Inc., and his wife, Jane Hartley, co-founder of the economic and political advisory firm Observatory Group LLC; Eric Mindich, founder of Eton Park Capital Management LP; and Ron Blaylock, co-founder of GenNx360 Capital Partners.

Mitt Romney, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has been criticized by party rivals for his background as founder of Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital LLC. While Obama hasn’t directly attacked Romney, he has signaled that his campaign will be based on a populist message of “fairness” to middle-income Americans and seeking higher taxes on the wealthy.

In response to a question, Messina told the group of Wall Street donors that the president plans to run against Romney, not the industry that made the former governor of Massachusetts millions, according to one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

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