Wednesday, July 21, 2004

GEORGETOWN: Hometown Ticket, Part II

As the Oculus has previously reported, Georgetown is in awe of itself for having its first hometown presidential ticket. (Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and wife Teresa Heinz Kerry live on O Street, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina lives on P Street.)

The Financial Times' Jurek Martin, in Wednesday's campaign diary, writes about the subtle celebration of sorts of the hometown ticket.

From the FT's Jurek Martin:
It took a while for the Democratic ticket to generate enthusiasm in the neighbourhood. One Georgetown free sheet got excited by it but found few people who actually knew the Kerrys or Edwardses. The leading local parish magazine, the Washington Post, has been uncharacteristically reticent on the matter.

But on Monday night, Georgetown turned out in impressive force to give money to the ticket, even not everybody present actually lived there. They did so in the elegant home of an unnamable friend, and with two star turns that, your fly-on-the-wall regrets, must also remain anonymous. Still, as the host pointed out, they do constitute two-thirds of most short lists for secretary of state in a Kerry administration.

Jurek continues later saying that "[a] Republican spy would dismiss them all as quintessential latte-loving, chardonnay-swilling, Volvo-driving elitists. But three houses up the same Georgetown block there is a formidable Republican fundraiser who offers his guest the same fare."

So who in Georgetown is giving to whom? According to FundRace.org, one of the Kerry's O Street neighbors gave $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Georgetown, and the rest of the 20007 zip code, is pretty blue territory.

That's not to say the GOP is not represented in Georgetown. Up on R Street, Helen Lee Henderson, who sits on the board of the Kennedy Center, gave the Republican National Committee $50,000 as well, according to FundRace.org. Across Dumbarton Oaks Park on Whitehaven Street, the Berman family, who count New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as a neighbor, has steered plenty of cash to the GOP.

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