Political Patronage, Democratic Party-Style

The recent dump of DNC emails thanks to Wikileaks has provided the mainstream media with a glimpse inside the functioning of the Democratic Party during an election cycle.  One email that received relatively little attention was this one:

This email thread, originating from the desk of Rebecca Herries on May 6, 2016, requests names from other members of the DNC including that of Jordan Kaplan, National Finance Director of the DNC, for possible attendance at the United State of Women Summit to be hosted by the White House on June 14, 2016.  If you follow the thread up, you will notice that the DNC was allotted only 25 tickets in total for the event and that they had "tons of requests for people to submit (their names)".

For your illumination, here is a link to the United State of Women website.  Speakers to the 2016 inaugural edition included Oprah Winfrey, Gloria Steinem, Michelle Obama, Tina Rey and Meryl Streep.  If you happen to be interested enough, here is an extremely lengthy video that provides you with a glimpse of what the movement is about:

Here is a complete list of speakers:

I am kind of surprised that they didn't have Bill Clinton as a keynote speaker, offering up his opinions on how to really treat a lady like a lady.

The United State of Women advocates on the following issues:

1.) Equal pay/economic empowerment for women

2.) Health and wellness for women

3.) Educational opportunities for women

4.) Violence against women

5.) Entrepreneurship and innovation for women

6.) Leadership and civic engagement for women

Now that you have that background, let's go back to the subject of this posting, the email thread from the DNC dated May 6, 2016.  We already know that tickets were almost impossible to get and that there was only a very small allotment for DNC staffers to give out.  Who would they pick?  I suspect that while you won't recognize the women by name, you will have a pretty good idea of why they are picked by the DNC.  On May 9, DNC Finance Director, Zachary Allen, emailed DNC Director of Data and Strategic Initiatives, Daniel Parrish, stating the following:

"I trust your judgement - any women who've given to us"

This was followed up with this response:

"So she has Judith Gibbons, Sarah Kovner, and Mina Malik on the list for WLF support. I've submitted Anne Hess and Leslie Lewis and she's going to try to add them, but she hasn't heard from CA yet so there may not be room. Will it be an issue for you if either of them don't make it in?"

Let's look at the first name on the list, Judith Gibbons a retired high school teacher from Hunter College who is married to hedge fund researcher, Francesco Scattone.  Here's a screen capture from Open Secrets showing her political donations in the 2016 cycle:

Hasn't Ms. Gibbons been a busy donor in this cycle?  No wonder she was on the list of potential invitees!  Interestingly, her name also appears on this list that appears to be a spreadsheet that was going to be used as a template for offering positions on boards and commissions in the Clinton II Administration as shown on this email:

...and this email:

Let's look at the donations from the second name on the list, Sarah Kovner, a senior research scholar at the Arnold A. Salesman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University:

Sarah Kovner was also a bundler for Barak Obama in 2012And, lastly, let's look at the third name on the list, Mina Malik, the executive director of the Civilian Complaint Review Board who sued her boss, Richard Emery, for referring to her and another female attorney as "pussies":

The "Party of the People" certainly seems to thrive on the "you scratch my back with cash or cheque and I'll scratch your back with a favour" method of operation.  While this isn't really surprising, it is interesting to actually see it in writing, thanks to the Wikileaks DNC email release.  I guess you have to have an ample supply of green paper lying around that is destined for the coffers of the Democratic Party (more specifically, Hillary Clinton) if you hope to rise above the sweaty masses.