Chicago Bundler Flips From Obama to Romney
Josh Nathan-Kazis March 21, 2012
A Jewish fundraiser for Mitt Romney says she turned against President Obama over his 2011 call for Israel to return to 1967 borders with mutually agreed land swaps, the Washington Post reported.
The bundler, Susan Crown, is a descendant of the now-deceased Henry Crown, a billionaire investor who once owned the Empire State Building.
Crown gave $2,300 to Barack Obama?s campaign in 2007. She does not appear on a list of volunteer fundraisers, or bundlers, for the Obama 2008 campaign. The Romney campaign has released no information on its fundraisers, so it?s impossible to know how much she has raised in this cycle.
?There are a lot of people here who are very disappointed in the president,? Crown told the Post. ?I?m an independent and I?m working as hard as I can for Mitt.?
The Forward reported two weeks ago on a handful of major Jewish donors to the Romney-affiliated super PAC who gave to Obama in 2008.
Susan Crown?s brother Jim Crown remains a major Obama supporter. Jim Crown raised over $500,000 for Obama in 2008 and had raised between $200,000 and $500,000 for him in the 2012 cycle as of the campaign?s latest report.
And though Susan Crown gave largely to Democrats between 2007 and her 2011 donation to Romney, her husband William Kunkler has given to a number of Republican candidates, including John McCain in 2008, Rudy Giuliani in 2007, and Scott Brown in 2010, among others. Like his wife, Kunkler gave to Obama in 2007.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
