Article The Obama-Tudor Jones Connection If youâre a hedgie and youâre not backing Obama, chances are youâre in the minority. May 2007 Considerable amounts of ink and pixels have been devoted lately to characterizing Barack Obama as the presidential candidate of the hedge-fund set. A Financial Times article last month quoted an anonymous United States businessman as saying, âThe whole of Greenwich is backing Obamaâ â a reference to Greenwich, Conn., the leafy suburb that many hedge fund managers call home. (That breezy statement turns out to be quite untrue, as we will see later.) An article on The New Republicâs Web site this week, titled âMoney Man,â picks up this theme. It begins by referring to Mr. Obamaâs âplaying the role of the âgrassroots candidateâ,â while at the same time taking lots of campaign cash from hedge funds and private-equity firms â ârelying on a growing cadre of young, eye-poppingly rich hedge-fund and private-equity managers to keep him at the head of the money primary.â The larger issue is that managers of hedge funds, which are private pools of capital for institutional and wealthy investors, are feeling their political oats. They have begun taking up lobbying activities, and Washington has turned its attention to the fast-growing industry. As a result, election watchers are eager to know who will win favor with this emerging political force. To be sure, Mr. Obama has taken considerable sums from hedge fund sources, and he is likely to take more. There are reports that Paul Tudor Jones II, founder of hedge fund Tudor Investment Corporation, will be hosting a fund raiser for Mr. Obama at his sprawling Greenwich mansion later this month. http://www.traderdaily.com/news/item/6871.html
Why ask "him" here? Here at ET, "he" will say he actually finances all candidates, just to be sure. The ultimate hedging, you know.