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Helicopters chopped the air above Woodside on Monday afternoon (Aug. 29) with the arrival on the ground of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Mr. Trump visited the Winding Way home of Saul Fox, chief executive of the private equity firm Fox Paine and Company, for a fundraising event.
Tickets were $25,000 apiece and about 40 guests attended. Accompanying Mr. Trump was former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, according to ABC7 News.
Mr. Fox is a regular donor to Republican candidates, according to the OpenSecrets.org, a website of the Center for Responsive Politics.
The 2016 presidential campaign is notable for the paucity of local contributors to the Republican candidate, and of the contributions that are made, most are relatively small by comparison to the 2012 campaign of Mitt Romney.
In the group of donors to Mr. Trump’s campaign, Mr. Fox stands out. Of the 12 donors with Woodside addresses, their 22 donations, as of July 2016, add up to $12,000, with most at around $250, according to OpenSecrets. Only Mr. Fox gave the maximum of $2,700 each for the primary and general elections.
Within the Almanac’s circulation area, Mr. Fox is almost alone, joined in his maximum gift only by Teresa Bettinger, who listed a Menlo Park address.
For Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, by contrast, OpenSecrets shows 292 donations listing the Woodside ZIP code, including 94 who gave the maximum $2,500.
Democratic party candidate Hillary Clinton is outpacing Mr. Trump by a huge margin. OpenSecrets lists 531 donations of $2,700 to former Secretary of State Clinton from addresses listed in Woodside, Atherton, Menlo Park and Portola Valley.
Of the 2,800 local donations to Ms. Clinton, Menlo Park and Atherton lead with around 150 maximum gifts each, with Portola Valley and Woodside each at about 120.
To the Almanac – Why did you feel it was important to name someone who gave the maximum to Trump who has no involvement that you know of to the event you are reporting on, is not a public figure and adds nothing to the story? Is it your attempt at “shaming”? There are many people here who support Trump who don’t donate for exactly the reason your article shows. If you are Republican in this area you don’t talk about it, and probably register as independent because you don’t want the trouble and even potential targeting by public agencies. Yes, it happens and don’t think it doesn’t.
“The 2016 presidential campaign is notable for the paucity of local contributors to the Republican candidate, and of the contributions that are made, most are relatively small by comparison to the 2012 campaign of Mitt Romney.”
Well, duh. Mitt was legit.
“Within the Almanac’s circulation area, Mr. Fox is almost alone, joined in his maximum gift only by Teresa Bettinger, who listed a Menlo Park address.” and “Why did you feel it was important to name someone who gave the maximum to Trump”
All are public records. A second with Google will find those and more, such as Walt & Teri’s foundation’s 990s.
Any 990 can be found at foundationcenter website.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant. If you and I as taxpayers are allowing other taxpayers to take deductions for non-profits, we should demand transparency. Are our elections any less important? We can talk tax returns and health records in another place.
Odd – I don’t see any complaints about traffic when a presidential contender comes to town.
The Mercury-News has a nice article about Woodside residents welcoming Mr. Trump to yesterday’s event: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_30304026/trump-attending-only-one-fundraiser-bay-area-today
This reads more like an opinion piece expose rather than journalistic reportage. Your biases are showing like the “dog whistles” you abhor..
Seemed like very factual reporting to me. I just reread it looking for subjective content and didn’t see it.
I appreciate knowing what all the helicopters were doing yesterday, I’m was wondering if there is an escapee or fire given the level of activity. I do find it annoying that Mr. Trump didn’t announce his fundraiser in advance. I like to know when any candidates or presidents are coming to town so I can avoid the traffic.
smugalert
Actually Teresa Bettinger is the spouse of Walter Bettinger the president and ceo of Charles Schwab. Thus a family donation. So if put in context the donation and donors are news worthy.
“Accompanying Mr. Trump was former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani,” his pet attack dog.
who cares that Rudy baby was with him. Two in the same place together = desperation.
This is Rudy’s last hurrah. His faculties are diminishing. Let him take his final lap.
He still thinks he’s the one who turned NYC around, although the crime rate started it’s decline a couple years before his arrival. And almost every major city reduced crime in the same timeframes and similar rates.
San Francisco, if I recall, had a greater reduction in violent crime than NYC, during the period of Rudy’s supposed miracle. Maybe Rudy thinks he was responsible for the national crime reduction in the nineties? That would explain his ‘sainthood’ from a certain sector.
And Trump would be just the type of lightweight to buy into that ridiculous St Rudy story.
Judgement is an issue. Rudy. Christie. The breightbart guy with the anti-Semitic statements. His past couple managers, like the one who assaulted the reporter. Hiring Ailes after his sexual assault history is finally public. Re-tweeting all that stuff from the white supremacist crowd.
Judgement.