COMMENTARY | One of the more interesting questions bound to come up during the 2012 elections is whether President Barack Obama can reclaim the liberal American Jewish donor base that helped him so much in 2008.
On the foreign policy side, the president didn't help his cause by calling for Israel's return to its 1967 borders as the starting point for ushering in a Palestinian state.
But personal connections combined with financial and political support in Chicago may be a stronger factor in Obama's bid for re-election than foreign policy positions.
Indeed, Chicago may be America's current unofficial political capitol.
The president's Chicago money connections rely heavily on real estate companies, many growing strong profits in the '80s when government largess spawned "urban renewal" projects like Presidential Towers.
Among noted Chicagoans who contribute to Obama's success is senior advisor Valerie Jarrett. Of the people managing President Obama's political affairs, Jarrett is perhaps the person Obama has known longest and relied upon the most. Political folklore has it that the president met wife Michelle when he went to Jarrett's office looking for a job.
Before Valerie Jarrett came to work for Obama, she was CEO of The Habitat Company, whose founder, Daniel Levin, developed Presidential Towers, an urban renewal project subsidized by federal tax-free bond debt.
Convicted former Chicagoan and U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski helped the Presidential Towers developers dodge the federal requirement that a fifth of the apartment units be reserved for low-income renters.
Rostenkowski later accepted a generous plea deal from then federal prosecutor Eric Holder.
The Presidential Towers development defaulted on its $159 million mortgage but stopped foreclosure proceedings when Pritzker Realty Group stepped in.
Pritzker Realty Group acquired the failed development for the bargain basement price of $14 million, and sold the property in 2007 for roughly $470 million.
President Obama's chief 2008 fundraiser, Penny Pritzker, is CEO of Pritzker Realty Group.
Courting Chicago's well-known wealthy Pritzker family paid off big for the man who would become president. It was fellow Chicagoan and long-time Obama friend Martin Nesbitt who introduced Obama and Pritzker.
Not ironically, it was Pritzker money that financed Nesbitt's successful startup of The Parking Spot.
As President Obama's national finance chairwoman for Obama's 2008 campaign, Pritzker raised a record $750 million through her deep roots in the Chicago donor community.
Small world.
Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for weekly and daily newspapers and several online publications. He is a frequent Yahoo contributor, concentrating in news and financial writing.
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