Clinton, Dole Raise Big Bucks In Big Apple

NEW YORK (AllPolitics, June 25) -- President Bill Clinton and his Republican rival Bob Dole may be miles apart on policy, but last night they were just blocks apart raising big bucks for their respective political parties.

Clinton raked in $3 million and Dole $2 million at several (separate) high-brow receptions featuring party brass and entertainment celebrities. OK, so most the celebrities were at Clinton's events.

Jazz legends Tony Bennett and Lionel Hampton were on hand to serenade the president at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, as were trumpet great Wynton Marsalis, his brother drummer Jason Marsalis, and blind pianist Marcus Roberts. Comedian Al Franken hosted the event, and later, at the Plaza hotel, private guests were entertained by comedienne Rosie O'Donnell.

"We're right and they're wrong," Clinton told his adoring Waldorf crowd. "You know what I'll do and you know what they'll do."

A few blocks away, Republicans sang a different tune. "If Senator Dole was President Dole today, we would have had some welfare reform down in Washington, we would have the changes that empower the states so that we would have a budget in Albany today," New York Gov. George Pataki told a $500-per-person fund-raiser.

For every three New York Republicans, there are four New York Democrats, but Dole -- citing a recent poll showing Clinton's lead shrinking to six percentage points -- predicted victory. "We're going to carry the state of New York," he told his audience, whose notables included Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) and New York GOP chairman William Powers.

Notably absent was maverick Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who has angered many in the party for his support of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo over Pataki. "What's significant about Dole's fund-raiser is not who comes but who doesn't," Clinton-Gore spokesman Joe Lockhart gloated to the Associated Press.

Giuliani, facing a tough re-election bid in an overwhelmingly Democratic town, frequently expresses independence from GOP orthodoxy. Sunday, Powers announced Giuliani had not been invited to join the state delegation to the GOP National Convention Aug. 12-15 in San Diego.

Clinton, Dole Raise Big Bucks In Big Apple

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