12/01/08

• Home

• The Magazine

• Archives

• Webcasts

• Advertising

• Job Board

• South Florida

• Subscribe

Broker$ get political during election

George W. Bush may have won the election, but he owes little of his second-term victory to the help of New York's residential real estate brokers.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, most real estate brokers contributed to Democratic Party candidates leading up to the November race. A look at the donations made during the 2004 election cycle, which also includes 2003, from Federal Elections Commission data posted at the Web site www.opensecrets.org, showed some big givers but not a lot of donations overall.

At the Corcoran Group, two star brokers were big contributors. Broker Robby Browne, who sold the record-breaking $45 million apartment at the Time Warner Center, gave an impressive $14,000 to the DNC Services Corp., an arm of the Democratic National Committee, as well as $1,500 to Gov. Howard Dean and $1,500 to Sen. John Kerry.

Broker Sharon Baum, meanwhile, gave $2,000 to George W. Bush and $1,676 to the Women's Campaign Fund.

At Douglas Elliman, number one agent Dolly Lenz gave $1,000 to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (even though the former first lady wasn't running for reelection).

Douglas Elliman Chairman Alan Rogers gave $2,000 to Sen. Charles Schumer and $2,000 to Sen. John Edwards.

At Brown Harris Stevens, Kathy Sloane, a vice president and director at the company, appeared to be the firm's most frequent giver. She made 10 different contributions, including $4,000 to Sen. Kerry, $2,000 to Sen. Clinton and $1,500 to Sen. Schumer.

Neil Binder, principal of Bellmarc, who is known for being active with Republican political action committee TOMPAC, or Together for our Majority, gave $10,000 to that organization.

Jeff Wolk, co-principal and co-founder of Fenwick-Keats, who held political fund-raiser dinners leading up to the election, also contributed: $10,000 to the DNC Services Corp., $1,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $500 to Sen. Schumer.

Meanwhile, a queen of social and politically-connected dinner parties, Alice Mason, who has counted ex-Presidents Clinton and Carter among her guests, gave $500 to Gov. Dean, $1,000 to Gen. Wesley Clark, and $2,000 to Sen. Clinton, according to opensecrets.org.