The San Remo apartment building, a pair of ivory towers perched at the edge of Central Park, is one of the most sought-after addresses on the Upper West Side, which is as blue a political district as there is. So for the past few elections, the San Remo has been an A.T.M. for Democratic presidential campaigns, sometimes among the most generous addresses in the country.
This time, it is coming through again, with its residents donating about $112,000 to President Obama's re-election effort through July, according to an analysis by The New York Times of the most recent campaign finance disclosures. That figure, however, is practically a gratuity compared with the amount the San Remo has given to Mr. Obama's Republican opposition: $395,550.
This remarkable shift of fortune is not a sign that New York is about to become a swing state. Rather, it stems from striking changes in the way political campaigns are financed. And it is a result, almost entirely, of the largess of a small number of donors — one of whom outgave the Democrats all by himself.
A San Remo resident who was particularly displeased by that news is a man named Andrew Tobias, who lives on the fourth floor, and who also happens to be the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee.
"I've been trying not to alienate my neighbors too much, but I guess I'm not doing my job," Mr. Tobias said.
The big giver was Robert Wilson, who contributed $200,000 to Restore Our Future, a pro-Mitt Romney "super PAC." That is not so far from what Mr. Wilson paid 30 years ago for his 16th-floor apartment overlooking the park, which he said cost him $300,000.
"I think Obama has done a poor job," Mr. Wilson said. "Obama wants to increase the size of government; Romney wants to keep it flat."
Mr. Wilson is a retired hedge fund titan, and someone who seems to enjoy a good contradiction. He gave more than $5 million to support New York's Roman Catholic schools two years ago, despite being a self-proclaimed atheist.
Now, he can add Romney-backing Upper West Side to his list of oxymoronic-sounding titles. But his latest distinction can be a lonely one, indeed, so he says he is unlikely to mention it among friends, much less in a San Remo elevator.
"I think anyone who lives in New York knows mostly Democrats," Mr. Wilson said. "I really try to avoid arguments."
The Times's analysis counted donations made in the 2011-12 election cycle to the candidates, to super PACs aligned with them and to the national parties, from the two addresses that make up the San Remo, 145 and 146 Central Park West.
A San Remo couple, Kevin and Karen Kennedy, gave $160,800 to the Romney side. Mr. Kennedy, who made his money at Goldman Sachs, declined to comment.
According to Bill Allison, the editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group, the money trail at the San Remo echoes a broader national trend, in which Mr. Romney has found greater success than Mr. Obama has in getting people to support him with six- and seven-figure checks.
And while the amount of money an individual can donate directly to a political campaign remains capped, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission gave rise to unlimited donations to super PACs, which allows donors' checkbooks to breathe free.
"He goes after big-ticket contributors, but they very quickly max out on his campaign," Mr. Allison said of Mr. Romney. "Thanks to Citizens United, now they can just give to the super PACs to support him."
The San Remo, which was designed by Emery Roth and completed in 1930, is one of four buildings along Central Park West with a distinctive two-tower design. Andrew S. Dolkart, head of the historic preservation program at Columbia University, said the four — the others are the Eldorado, the Majestic and the Century — were built in the span of just a few years, sandwiched between a change in building laws in the late 1920s that allowed for greater heights and the Depression.
Over the years, the San Remo has developed a celebrity pedigree, with a list of co-op owners that has included Bono, Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman and Bruce Willis. A few years ago, there was a dispute in the building when Bono and other residents complained that smoke from some fireplaces, including one belonging to the 1980s rock star Billy Squier, was getting into their apartments. (Mr. William Squier gave $500 to Representative Ron Paul's fund in this election cycle.)
The building's political pedigree is similarly robust. At one point in 2004, 146 Central Park West was the single most generous address to Democratic presidential causes in the country — a ranking earned even without donations from the southern half of the San Remo, 145 Central Park West, which is part of the same physical building, though it has a separate lobby. And in the 2008 cycle, the combined San Remo addresses gave nearly $200,000 to Democratic candidates and only $32,000 to Republicans.
But Democrats need not panic at the apparent shift in tides. If the totals for the building were to include money donated by apartment owners using other addresses, say, of a second home, the scales begin to tip back. Mr. Tobias, a financial writer, gave only $30,400 using his San Remo address but $36,200 from a Miami address, the analysis of donations found. Mr. Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, have given $235,600 to the Obama re-election effort in this cycle, including $100,000 to Priorities USA Action, a pro-Obama super-PAC, but have done so from California. A resident named Diana Rose gave $64,100 from Katonah, N.Y.
Money donated since July to the Obama and Romney efforts has not yet been reported.
Nonetheless, the revelation that, at least on paper, the San Remo was a Romney stronghold caused a few Democrats to promise to believe in Obama a little harder.
"I'm going to give a lot of money," Joy Fishman said from her San Remo living room, which overlooks Central Park. (Ms. Fishman's husband, Jack Fishman, along with his colleagues, invented and patented in the 1960s the drug Naloxone, which is given to people who have overdosed on opioids like morphine and heroin.)
"I find the Romney team very scary," Ms. Fishman continued. "I just don't want to live under that."
Mr. Tobias, who said he paid $41,000 for his two-bedroom spread in the 1970s, said it was not always easy for him to solicit fellow co-op shareholders for money because he gets off the elevator at the fourth floor. But he said he knew what he had to do: "I'll get back to work!"
By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS and JO CRAVEN McGINTY 18 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/nyregion/gifts-for-romney-from-2-democratic-leaning-manhattan-towers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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