By Ted Johnson, Council for National Interest (CNI)
Note: Haim Saban, a businessman whose net worth is over $3 billion dollars, is an American-Israeli dual citizen. In 2004, he told the New York Times, “I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.” In 2010, he told New Yorker magazine that his greatest concern is to protect Israel by strengthening the United States-Israel relationship.
Saban has bluntly outlined his formula for gaining influence in American politics: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets. Saban tried to buy Time and Newsweek magazines, and has made repeated bids for the Los Angeles Times because he considers the paper to be pro-Palestinian. He has donated $12 million to Democrats since 2002.]
Variety, 7/28/14 – Asked in a Bloomberg TV interview what kind of financial commitment he was ready to make to getting Hillary Clinton elected president should she decide to run, media mogul Haim Saban signaled that he was prepared to contribute “as much as needed.”
Saban, the executive chairman of Univision and CEO of Saban Capital Group, said that Clinton “would be great for the country and great for the world, so on issues I care about, she is pristine plus, and she is already plus plus and I hope that she can make the right decision.”
He added, “Obviously she has a life to lead, and is going to be a grandmother soon, and all of that obviously would be taken into consideration.”
Saban was among the top Democratic donors in the era of so-called “soft money,” in which parties could collect unlimited contributions, a practice that ended with campaign finance reform in 2002. The landscape changed with the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010, opening up a new era of unlimited campaign spending, and the rise of SuperPACs.
In 2012, Saban gave $1 million to Unity 2012, a joint fund-raising committee that split its funds between Priorities USA Act, a PAC supporting President Obama’s candidacy, and two other PACs backing House and Senate Democrats.
It’s expected that there will be a large infusion of campaign cash from wealthy donors in 2016 as well. Priorities USA Action is among the PACs planning to focus on Clinton’s candidacy if she decides to run.
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Politico, 11/29/13 – Mega-donor and Hollywood figure Haim Saban, a longtime Hillary Clinton backer, on Friday said he’d “pitch in with full might” if she launches a likely 2016 campaign, describing a growing consensus that she is President Barack Obama’s “natural successor.”
The remarks to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper came several months after the media tycoon privately commissioned a movie about Clinton upon her departure from the State Department, featuring international figures including Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama singing her praises as Secretary of State.
“I hope she will run. She would be a wonderful president,” said Saban, who gave $1 million last year to a super PAC that raised money for Priorities USA and other groups. Priorities backed Obama in 2012 and is in the process of morphing into a pro-Clinton endeavor.
“If it happens, we will of course pitch in with full might,” Saban added. “Seeing her in the White House is a big dream of mine.”
Saban’s comments about Vice President Joe Biden were also noteworthy.
“I think that if Vice President Biden decides to run, Obama will stay neutral, but if Biden does not run and she does, he will support her,” Saban said. “The general feeling is that Hillary is Obama’s natural successor.”
Biden has made clear he wants to be taken seriously as a potential 2016 hopeful, but he was was depicted in the 2012 retrospective “Double Down”as a nuisance to Obama’s aides, who engaged in loose talk about replacing him on the ticket with Clinton.
The early signal from Saban is a reminder that Clinton will have plenty of outside cash to help her in a potential campaign. And unlike Obama, who had an uncomfortable relationship with Priorities USA that kept a number of donors at bay, the Clintons have historically had no such worry. Bill Clinton provided a major boost to Priorities in mid-2012 at a time when it was struggling.
As for Biden, the question of whether Obama campaign manager Jim Messina will join Priorities USA has been delayed, according to multiple sources, because of the dust-up over “Double Down.” The central figure in that episode was former White House chief of staff William Daley, and Obama has said he himself never considered such a thing, but the information in the book has left a bad taste in the mouths of Biden allies.
