Hedge funds and lobbying

Hedge fund manager plead their case on Capitol Hill this past week:

The five hedge fund managers who testified Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are more likely to find friends among Democrats, who have received 65 percent of the total $14.2 million the unregulated industry has given this election cycle to federal candidates, committees and parties. But the managers didn’t appear to be asking members of Congress for protection from regulation–instead they seemed resigned to the fact that it will happen and wanted to have a hand in shaping it, according to the Washington Post.

The managers who testified–George Soros, Philip Falcone, John Paulson, James Simons and Kenneth Griffin–have themselves contributed $179,200 to Congress this election cycle, favoring Democrats with 74 percent of their money. Soros, however, is the only one of them to have given money to president-elect Barack Obama, who received a total of $2.6 million from the hedge fund and private equity industry this election cycle. (John McCain received about $1.6 million.) Employees from the five companies represented by these men (Soros Fund Management, Harbinger Capital, Paulson & Co., Renaissance Technologies Corp and Citadel Investment Group) gave $269,550 to Obama. Citadel employees were responsible for nearly $200,000 of that. Collectively, employees of the companies represented at Thursday’s hearing have given all candidates and committees $915,900 this cycle.

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