Democrats head to New York for Wall Street dough

Politico reports:

While Democrats push Wall Street regulations on the Senate floor, Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) will head to Manhattan Monday for a fundraiser with deep-pocketed donors who have ties to the financial industry.

According to an invitation obtained by POLITICO, the fundraiser is billed as a “political discussion” for those who want to contribute up to $10,000 for Gillibrand’s reelection campaign and spend Monday evening with the two Democratic senators.

The event will be held at the Park Avenue home of Ralph Schlosstein, a former Carter administration official who is the CEO of the investment firm Evercore and used to work at Lehman Bros. Holdings. Schlosstein’s wife Jane Hartley, the event co-host, is seen as a leading New York Democratic donor, has given more than $300,000 to Democratic candidates in recent years, but is not employed in the financial industry.

Also attending the event is Roger Altman, a former Clinton administration Treasury Department official and founder of Evercore; Leo Hindery, managing partner of a New York-based private equity fund; David Topper, vice chairman of JPMorgan’s investment banking outfit; Wiltold Balaban, an attorney who has represented Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America; hedge fund investor James Torrey and Richard Beattie, a New York-based attorney who participated in the $58 billion acquisition of Bank One Corp. by JPMorgan. Altman co-hosted a fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Sunday night in New York.

The Democrat party: bailouts for the rich.