By Aaron C. Davis
NEW YORK — At the head of the table, wearing a massive diamond brooch, was the widow of the man who was once the country’s richest African American. A few seats down, there was Wendell Pierce of HBO fame in “The Wire” and “Treme,” and beyond that, NFL star Adam “Pacman” Jones.
Taking the microphone Monday evening inside a luxury upper East Side penthouse in Manhattan was President Obama, thanking everyone for attending the $10,000-a-plate fundraiser. “It is wonderful to see so many old friends and a few new ones,” Obama began.
After headlining far fewer party fundraisers following Democrats’ drubbing in last fall’s midterm elections, Obama this week is reconnecting with scores of old contributors. The president is scheduled to follow up two fundraisers Monday in Manhattan with two more in Portland, Ore., during a cross-country trek later this week.
The fundraisers are tacked onto policy announcements in both cities but come as the Democratic National Committee has clearly begun ramping up efforts to pad the party’s coffers for the 2016 presidential race.
A woman waves as her hair is blown in the wind made by the Marine One helicopter as it takes Obama from the White House on May 4 en route for a trip to New York City. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
As he has repeatedly since the party’s disappointment last fall, Obama began his remarks on Monday stressing that despite gridlock with Republicans in Congress, his record can still be part of a winning message next year.
“We’ve seen five years straight of job growth. Stock market is booming,” Obama said. “Almost every economic indicator you can think of, we are doing better than when I came into office.”
The line was met with generous applause, but it was also clear that for some in attendance, including host Leslie Lewis, and her mother, Loida Lewis, the evening was at least partly about one more memorable moment with the nation’s first African American president.
Leslie Lewis, an actor and writer, carried an infant girl past the White House press corps, relegated to a hallway behind Secret Service agents and caterers packed in a kitchen preparing fillets. “This is the press, Sasha,” Lewis said, smiling to the girl and appearing headed for family pictures with Obama. Named after Obama’s daughter, a reporter asked? Maybe, Lewis replied.
The home, covered in fine art, and mahogany, is owned by Loida Lewis, a Filipino American and heir to late husband Reginald Lewis’s fortune made in a European snack business. Reginald Lewis, who died in 1993, was reportedly the richest African American man during the 1980s.
“Thank you for opening up this amazing home,” Obama said in recognizing the family. “I suspect that your neighbors aren’t thrilled.”
“Some of them are here,” Loida Lewis said, laughing.
“Neighbors, thank you. We’re tying up the elevators and messing up the streets — I know,” Obama said
Indeed, Obama’s lengthy motorcade on Monday paralyzed traffic at rush hour through stretches of Manhattan as he crisscrossed the city from Wall Street to midtown for a taping of the “Late Show with David Letterman,” then to the Upper East Side, Tribeca and back to lower Manhattan to reach his helicopter to leave the city.
Before reporters were escorted from the fundraiser for a private question-and-answer with the 60 attendees, Obama pivoted off of the recent riots in Baltimore and unrest in Ferguson, Mo., to make a longer pitch that the work of the Democratic Party will remain critical long after he’s left office.
“Certainly what’s been brought to, once again, America’s attention over the last several months is that . . . there are communities that are still locked out of opportunity,” Obama said. “And part of our task over the next two years, next five years, 10, 20 years is making sure that the basic ideal upon which this country was founded is realized.”
At a second fundraiser, described as a private “round table” later Monday night, about 30 supporters contributed up to $33,400 each, according to a Democratic Party official. That event was hosted at the home of two prominent African Americans on Wall Street, Tracy Maitland, chief executive of Advent Capital Management, and Kimberley Hatchett, an executive director at Morgan Stanley.
Combined, the two events appeared likely to net upwards of $1.6 million.
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