Hey gang - Is Thomas H Lee a supporter of Kerry's?

He and some others, including HaimSaban, just bought Univision.

I know Saban, and he is a longtime Dem and philanthropist from LA. Would like to know what the deal is on Thoma H Lee and Texas Pacific.

Univision, the largest Spanish language broadcaster in the US, has agreed to be sold to a consortium of investors for $12.3bn (£6.7bn) in an all-cash deal.

The consortium is led by private equity firms Texas Pacific and Thomas H Lee Partners, and also includes media boss Haim Saban and Providence Equity.

If approved by Univision shareholders and regulators, the deal is expected to be completed by early 2007.

Univision has three TV networks - Univision, Telefutura and Galavision.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5121906.stm

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?city=Boston&st=MA&last=Lee&first=Thomas

BIG TIME democratic donor.

BUT he supported Weld for Senate in 1996 over Kerry.
LEE, THOMAS H DR
BOSTON, MA 02108
THE CENTER FOR QUALITY MANGM WELD, WILLIAM F (R)
Senate - MA
WELD FOR SENATE INC $250
primary 07/31/96

LEE, THOMAS H
BOSTON, MA 02109
THOMAS H LEE & CO INC WELD, WILLIAM F (R)
Senate - MA
WELD FOR SENATE INC $1,000
primary 05/20/96

so I'd guess he's not a big Kerry fan. Too bad.

Edited to add:

He supported Romney against Teddy too:

LEE, THOMAS
BOSTON, MA 02109 ROMNEY, W MITT (R)
Senate - MA
ROMNEY FOR U S SENATE COMMITTEE INC $1,000
general 10/18/94

It looks like he's a dem convert.

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he did give big $$$ to Clinton.

Does that mean Hillary now has her own tv network?

Ahm, I think he covered his bets by giving the former goofy Gov some luv. He gave big time luv to the Dems, including a certain taller Sen whose hair was just going silver back then.

$35,000 is some serious loving for the local party, imho.

Thomas H. Lee Partners is the teddy bear at the gate. Known as a "friendly" leveraged buyout (LBO) firm, the company uses a mix of debt, funds from institutional investors, and its own money to buy companies. Unlike the fearsome LBO outfits of the 1980s, Thomas H. Lee Partners eschews the axe for the handshake; it builds up a stake and courts management cooperation. Typical acquisitions are middle-market companies with the potential for growth. Lee then usually sells the revamped acquisitions or takes them public. Thomas H. Lee, who founded the company in 1974, left his namesake firm in 2006 to start a long-planned rival hedge fund and private equity venture.

http://www.hoovers.com/thomas-h.-lee-partners/--ID__40463--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml

1995-95 political contributions in MAssachusetts

10) Thomas H. Lee 35,000 0 35,000 (Democrats, Republicans, total)

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1997 -- Someone from this comapny went to the infamous 'coffees with Bill' at the WH (for a price)
* Scott Sperling, a senior executive with Thomas H. Lee Co., Boston's leveraged buyout giant, attended two coffees. Sperling's boss, Thomas Lee, gave $35,000 to the DNC.

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Gave to the Gore campaign in 1999

Capitalizing on his position, Gore leads Bradley by almost 2-to-1 margins in the number of contributors and the amount of money raised in Massachusetts.

Gore has raised $550,000 from 706 contributors in Massachusetts, according to a computer analysis of Federal Election Commission records performed for the Globe by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based good-government group. Bradley has collected $301,000 in the state from 374 contributors.

"People who have been active in the Democratic Party and active in campaigns in Massachusetts for the last decade have a lot of support for what the Clinton-Gore administration has accomplished," said Charles A. Baker, an attorney and political consultant active in the Gore campaign. "The vice president has been the beneficiary of that support."

Most of the deep-pocketed donors and fund-raisers from Massachusetts are in Gore's camp. Included on this list are the former party chairman and current Massachusetts Envelope Co. executive, Steven Grossman; John P. Manning of Boston Capital Corp.; the venture capitalist Thomas H. Lee; Gerald and Elaine Schuster, both party stalwarts; Fred Siegel of Energy Capital Partners; nursing home operator and former DNC finance chair Alan Solomont; and Viacom's Sumner Redstone.

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They were part of and had their name on the commission that brought the DNC to Boston in 2004. (Ahm, that's a friggin Democrat for sure.)

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He endorsed and helped Kerry in 2004. Big time business and wall street endorsement for Kerry during the latter part of the campaign.

http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=Lee&fname=Thomas&search=Search+by+Name

Thomas H Lee
CEO
Thomas H. Lee Capital LLC
John Kerry
$2,000 590 Madison Ave (map)
New York, NY 10022

He also gave money to Gephardt, Dean, Clark and Edwards.

And this:

Mr. Thomas Lee
President
Thomas H. Lee Capital
DNC
$25,000 322 E 57th St (map)
New York, NY 10022

>>>>>>
It is also one of the more audacious private-equity firms, rarely hesitating to take on troubled companies that its peers steer away from. "Their signature deals are the ones nobody else would do not for the faint of heart," says Bennett Goodman, until recently head of alternative investments at Credit Suisse First Boston. For example, when Enron Corp., operating under bankruptcy-law protection, wanted to sell its Portland General Electric utility unit, TPG ended up being the only potential buyer. The deal is still moving through the regulatory process. Yet, despite its strong reputation and track record, the firm is so invisible that it lacks even a Web site. Part of the explanation for TPG's success lies in the odd-couple alliance between the firm's top two partners: the hard-charging and peripatetic Mr. Bonderman, 62 years old, and the more-cautious Mr. Coulter, age 45.

"They are smart, classy, roll-up-your-sleeves kind of guys," says Chris Nassetta who runs Host Marriott Corp. "If we were ever in distress, they would be my first call."

Mr. Bonderman opened TPG's first office in Fort Worth, and now spends his time between his home in Aspen, Colo. and the West Coast when he is not on the road. Two years ago, he booked the Rolling Stones to play at his 60th birthday party in Las Vegas, handing out black "Bonderman Rocks Vegas" T-shirts to hundreds of invitees. In the 2004 presidential campaign, he backed John Kerry, saying President Bush was "the worst president since Millard Fillmore—and that's probably an insult to Millard Fillmore."
>>>>>>>>

Meanwhile, Republican-linked organizations such as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Progress for America Voter Fund, which plans a $35 million television blitz against Kerry, help Bush. The latter group, made up of Bush backers, said it planned to launch the ad campaign despite the president's stated objections to 527s. Those supporters include Boone Pickens, president of Pickens Capital LLC, and Jerry Perenchio, chief executive of Univision Communications.

From -- Attack ads by 527s spark bitter debate
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Chicago Final, Sec. News, p 1 08-27-2004

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