Hollywood executives are opening their checkbooks–and new Super PACs–for Hillary Clinton as she makes a second run at the presidency. Ted Johnson and James Rainey report for Variety that Hollywood is far more unified behind Clinton than they were in 2008, when Barack Obama successfully split the liberal donor base. This time, heavyweights such as Jeffrey Katzenberg are joining Clinton loyalists like Haim Saban to provide the big money to fuel her 2016 campaign.
The authors recall the pain of 2008:
Clinton entered her last campaign — “I’m in, and I’m in to win” — as the presumptive front-runner, but in the entertainment industry that quickly was countered by Barack Obama’s entrance in the race. Katzenberg, David Geffen and Steven Spielberg hosted the cycle’s first major industry event for Obama in February, 2007, and a the next day, a Maureen Dowd interview with Geffen in which he bashed both Clintons triggered the first signs of acrimony between the two campaigns.
As the Clinton-Obama primary race dragged on in 2008, Hollywood was split, to the point of acrimony carried out in email chains and at cocktail parties….
This time around, the Clinton naysayers on the left are so far without the formidable presence of an alternative of Obama’s stature, even if they have concerns about her candidacy.
Elizabeth Warren has friends in Hollywood, Variety notes, but is no match for the Clinton cash. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is only just beginning to tap Hollywood support.
And the Variety article does not bother with Republicans.
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