Clinton Fundraisers Ready to Aid Obama, Party

WASHINGTON -- Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis is one of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton's most ardent supporters and raised more than $1 million for her campaign.

But on Tuesday, the Sacramento developer took a step she never imagined: She donated $4,600 to Barack Obama. "As hard as it is to let go of the dream, I believe that we need to beat John McCain," Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis said.

It's one sign of the growing cooperation between Clinton and Obama fundraisers now that Obama has clinched the Democratic Party nomination and is forging ahead with the general-election battle against Republican presumptive nominee John McCain.

Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe met Thursday in New York with some of Clinton's biggest fundraisers, including her national finance co-chairman Hassan Nemazee. Today, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a vocal Clinton backer who once questioned whether Obama could win his state in the fall, plans to appear at a fundraiser with the Illinois senator.

"For most Democrats, the desire to recapture the White House is the imperative," said Rendell. "There's very little difficulty in persuading people to come help Sen. Obama."

Rendell, who plans to campaign on Obama's behalf and raise money for him, said tonight's event in Philadelphia is a joint fundraiser for Obama and the cash-strapped Democratic National Committee.

But in a sign of the urgency to raise campaign cash, Rendell said Obama didn't want to reschedule tonight's fundraiser, even though the governor warned him that many Philadelphia donors were headed to the New Jersey shore for the weekend. Rendell said Obama told him: "We don't need the people. We just need the checks."

Kenneth Gross, a campaign-finance expert, said the length and intensity of the grueling nomination battle means that "Obama has his work cut out for him."

Four years ago, John Kerry clinched the Democratic nomination in early March. This year, "the candidate really only has the months of June, July and August to raise money" before the intense fall campaigning, said Nemazee, who was Kerry's New York finance chairman in 2004.