
The Democratic
National Committee will announce some time in the next few days that it's
pulling some of its business from Bank of America, the Wall Street Journal
reports, citing a "Democratic Party official." Instead, the organization will
keep its money at union-owned Amalgamated Bank. The
process of moving all of the DNC's money to Amalgamated will be completed after
the election, according to the paper.
The move could make
things a little awkward between the DNC and President Obama's reelection
campaign, which uses BofA for its banking needs. And as the Wall Street Journal
notes, Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination at Bank of
America Stadium in
The DNC is just the
latest in a slew of organizations and cities to pull its money from BofA, and
the move could put pressure on the Obama campaign to do the same. The city of
Even though others
are doing it, it's unlikely Obama's campaign will take a public stand against a
major Wall Street bank while the president is looking to haul in election cash.
BofA is one of many big companies where employees are ditching Obama, and
pulling his campaign money from their employer likely wouldn't increase BofA
employee donations. In 2008, 44 percent of BofA workers' campaign contributions
went to Republicans. In 2012, that share shot up to 72 percent, according to
Bloomberg.
Overall, Obama's
presidential rival is beating him at raising Wall Street cash. As of June, Mitt
Romney's campaign had pulled in $37.1 million in fundraising dollars from the
financial sector, compared to the Obama campaign's $4.8 million, according to
Slate.
Although he referred
to bankers as "fat cats" in 2009, Obama is still taking pains to woo them. But
as The New York Times detailed earlier this year, Obama's campaign has had
trouble convincing Wall Street that the president hasn't turned against it,
amid financial reforms and populist
rhetoric.
Even Warren Buffett
wasn't enough to bring out Wall Street's finest for an Obama fundraiser hosted
by the Oracle of Omaha last October. The turnout was "disappointing," according
to the New York Post. Huffington Post
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