Is This Why Cory Booker Took Up for Bain?

In the last couple of days, Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker has criticized the Obama campaign for scrutinizing Mitt Romney's work for Bain Capital, and then he released a YouTube video backing off of that position and praising the president.

Think Progress is now asking whether a possible reason for his initial unease with attacks on Bain and venture capital generally could be loyalty to some of his and most generous backers from his 2002 campaign. It's not exactly a huge shocker, since most campaigns receive funding from the financial industry, but it could represent one missing piece of what's been the political story of the week.

From Think Progress:

Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) -- all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.

He and his slate also jointly raised funds for the “Booker Team for Newark” joint committee. They received more than $450,000 for the 2002 campaign from the sector -- including a pair of $15,400 contributions from Bain Capital Managing Directors Joshua Bekenstein and Mark Nunnelly. It appears that for the initial campaign and runoff, the slate raised less than $4 million -- again making this a sizable chunk.

In all -- just in his first Mayoral run -- Booker’s committees received more than $565,000 from the people he was defending. At least $36,000 of that came from folks at Romney’s old firm.

Read more at Think Progress.

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