Robert Zimmerman

Democratic bundler Robert Zimmerman was sitting in a conference room in the Great Neck office of his public relations and marketing firm a couple of weeks ago, musing over his quietly inexorable climb into the elite levels of New York and national politics over the past 20 or so years.

On the walls hung maps of Long Island, a pastel photo illustration of Bill Clinton and Al Gore, and a poster of J.F.K. with John Jr. Mr. Zimmerman, 53, is a member of the Democratic National Committee and also a superdelegate, and is one of Senator Hillary Clinton’s top fund-raisers in the country. Though he himself does not have the wealth of, say, other major Clinton finance people like banker Hassan Nemazee and venture capitalist Steven Rattner, he has proven to be incredibly successful at convincing other people with disposable income to support his candidate.  read more »

Robert Zimmerman--a Democratic National Committee member and one of Hillary Clinton's major New York-based fund-raisers--appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight last night and essentially called for Eliot Spitzer's resignation.

When asked, Zimmerman said he does not think the governor should survive the revelation that he patronized a prostitution ring, "If the facts are as they appear to be."

Zimmerman also said of Spitzer's public appearance yesterday, "He didn't get it."

Partial transcript after the jump.   read more »

The Wall Street Journal today wrote, “In two recent polls of likely Iowa caucus-goers, Sen. Clinton was slightly ahead in one, but her chief rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, had retaken the edge in the other. A decisive Clinton victory in Iowa potentially could clinch the nomination; a loss, or even a close call, makes her vulnerable in the states that follow.”

Such analysis, in the view of one of Clinton's top fund-raisers, may be a greater threat to her campaign than any of her opponents.

Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committeeman and major Clinton supporter, said that the media was setting her up for a fall, and that the idea that Hillary Clinton is a front-runner losing ground in Iowa “is the greatest fiction of the entire presidential race.”

“Senator Clinton started out in third place in Iowa," he told me. "A distant third place. Governor Vilsack told me, when he declared support for her, that she was in a distant third in Iowa. Obviously it’s going to be a close race. It always was and will be a close race. I think too many of the Clinton supporters took this nomination for granted and I think for the Clinton supporters this is a powerful wake up call. But the real issue here is not how Senator Clinton does in comparison to Edwards and Obama. The real issue here is how does Hillary Clinton do compared to media expectations. That’s her competition in Iowa. Not Edwards and Obama. Media expectations. I think she is showing a lot of courage by focusing on Iowa, staying in the race in Iowa, and campaigning there, versus Giuliani and McCain and others who have simply walked away from the race in Iowa.”

While many of the guests last night at the 20th anniversary reunion dinner for supporters of Al Gore's first presidential campaign wore campaign-style buttons that said "Al Gore reunion 2007," there was little serious talk about Gore entering the 2008 presidential race, according to one attendee.

"People do not perceive him as sending mixed signals," said the guest. "People have a very deep loyalty to him, but they have gotten involved in other campaigns."

That didn't keep the 45 or so veterans of many a presidential campaign from discussing the declared Democratic candidates.

"You can't put together a bunch of jockeys in a room and not talk about horseracing," the guest said.

Attendees at the buffet-style dinner at the Washington house of Gore confidant Peter Knight included Gore's current chief-of-staff Roy Neal, and nationally recognized fund-raisers Mary Pat Bonner, Charles Bone, Carol Pensky, Robert Zimmerman, Orin Kramer and Allan Kessler.