Desiree Didn't Send Christmas Cards: Report
Card snafu could affect fundraising
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This picture looks like a Christmas card
Desiree Rogers was implicated in a gate-crashing scandal that left egg on the White House’s facade, but that may not have been the whole reason she left.
Apparently, she failed to send Christmas cards to some of Obama’s biggest fundraisers, who were already steamed over other perceived slights, Politico reports, and that could have led to her being forced out.
“The donors rose up, and that was another reason Desiree got pushed out,” said a source close to the White House told Politico.com.
Experts say the slight may have party implications as the Democrats enter into a tough election season vs. the Republicans. They’ll need all the cash they can get, especially from Obama’s big-money donors.
The need for serious fund-raising could be one reason that President Obama chose Julianna Smoot to fill the Social Secretary role. Smoot has an extensive donor Rolodex.
Smoot could help turn around another aspect of the Social Secretary’s office that Roger’s is said to have botched. She will likely invite more donors to White House functions.
The state dinner that was ultimately crashed by the fame-seeking Salahi’s lacked any major donors, sources tell Politico, and felt more like a “big staff party,” one source said.
At least one Obama donor who spoke to the paper said he didn’t expect to be courted by the White House for every social event.
“We didn’t do it for that reason. I think most people who helped Obama early on just believed in the guy,” said Stewart Bainum, an Obama backer from Maryland, to Politico. “But we are all human, and it is nice to be recognized, too.”
Posted Tuesday, Mar 16, 2010 - 7:30 AM CST
