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Democratic Education Group to Donors: Give ‘Til It Hurts

By Alyson Klein — September 19, 2008 1 min read
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At 4:31 next Thursday, the Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign will get a big infusion of cash from education redesign-minded Dems. Or so Joe Williams, the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform hopes.

The organization, which some view as an effort to help counterbalance to teachers’ unions influence on Democratic Party politics, sent out an alert today to donors. The advisory asks contributors to go to the DFER portion of Sen. Barack Obama’s fundraising site and give up to the maximum of $2,300 per person (the advisory helpfully reminds donors that their spouses can give, too). Then it urges them to head over to the DFER fundraising portion of the Democratic National Committee’s Web site and give as much as $28,500.

Those who contribute more than $1,000 will get an invitation to an event featuring Obama adviser Jon Schnur, and Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player who is running for mayor of Sacramento, Calif.

The advisory doesn’t say this ... but if the “education minute” results in a major cash bump for Obama and the DNC, it will help raise the profile of DFER, whose budding influence was evident during the Democratic convention in Denver last month, when Williams got to sit in the DNC’s luxury box during Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s speech.

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