Chicago Bundler Flips From Obama to Romney

Josh Nathan-Kazis March 21, 2012

A Jewish fundraiser for Mitt Romney says she turned against President Obama over his 2011 call for Israel to return to 1967 borders with mutually agreed land swaps, the Washington Post reported.

The bundler, Susan Crown, is a descendant of the now-deceased Henry Crown, a billionaire investor who once owned the Empire State Building.

Crown gave $2,300 to Barack Obama?s campaign in 2007. She does not appear on a list of volunteer fundraisers, or bundlers, for the Obama 2008 campaign. The Romney campaign has released no information on its fundraisers, so it?s impossible to know how much she has raised in this cycle.

?There are a lot of people here who are very disappointed in the president,? Crown told the Post. ?I?m an independent and I?m working as hard as I can for Mitt.?

The Forward reported two weeks ago on a handful of major Jewish donors to the Romney-affiliated super PAC who gave to Obama in 2008.

Susan Crown?s brother Jim Crown remains a major Obama supporter. Jim Crown raised over $500,000 for Obama in 2008 and had raised between $200,000 and $500,000 for him in the 2012 cycle as of the campaign?s latest report.

And though Susan Crown gave largely to Democrats between 2007 and her 2011 donation to Romney, her husband William Kunkler has given to a number of Republican candidates, including John McCain in 2008, Rudy Giuliani in 2007, and Scott Brown in 2010, among others. Like his wife, Kunkler gave to Obama in 2007.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email opinion@forward.com.

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