With Super Tuesday looming, President Obama cut a swath through New York City last night, attending four separate fundraisers, beginning his evening in a Manhattan penthouse. The big ticket events of the night both happened in Union Square, starting with a $35,000-a-plate dinner at ABC Kitchen, run by celebuchef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and then moving onto ABC Carpet & Home showroom, where Aziz Ansari made a special appearance and both The Roots and Ben Folds put on a show for the “young, hip-looking crowd.”
In seven hours, he managed to raise $5 million.
The press has focused on high-profile attendees like Deepak Chopra and Russell Simmons, as well as the turnout from the upper echelons of Wall Street. Indeed, Republicans would probably love to make stumping in front of an $18,000 piece of driftwood this season’s $400 haircut. But under the radar, New York techies also showed up–and paid up!–for the Democratic cause, and the ancillary bonus of getting to watch Questlove bang on some drums.