Marc Lasry has a gift for raising money. The co-founder and managing partner of New Yorkbased investment firm Avenue Capital Group and his wife, Cathy, frequently host fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee in their tony, 12,000-square-foot town house on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. As many as 150 people have crowded inside to cozy up to the likes of U.S. presidential candidates Al Gore and John Kerry, not to mention former president Bill Clinton, a pal of Lasry's and an invaluable drawing card.
Most guests write checks for $500 to $1,000. The Lasrys themselves donate $25,000 annually to the DNC, the maximum allowed by law.
"If you believe in something, you should be willing to put money behind it," says Lasry, who also contributes smaller sums to individual Democrats, including recently elected New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Senator Hillary Rodham...