WASHINGTON – Residents of the Upper East Side gave more political contributions than any ZIP code in the nation, according to calculations by a Washington watchdog group.
Candidates for president, political parties and those running for the House and Senate banked more than $20 million between East 61st and East 80th streets, from Central Park to the East River, according to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics.
That swath of premium real estate used to be categorized by the Postal Service as the elite 10021 ZIP code, but two smaller postal areas were carved out of it one year ago.
The top fund-raiser in the neighborhood is not former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, or even the presumptive nominee, Barack Obama.
Rather, it’s native son Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) who is convincing New York’s richest residents to get out their checkbooks.
Schumer heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which collects and redistributes funds to candidates in his party who need the help.
Since taking the reins of the committee in 2005, Schumer has decimated any fund-raising records set before him.
The ZIP code report indicates that to do so, Schumer, whose Manhattan office is in Midtown, is sticking close to home.
The DSCC pulled in $3.3 million from the area previously covered by the 10021 area code over the last two years. Clinton, by comparison, raised $2.8 million, Obama raised $2 million, and McCain raised $1.1 million.
Fifty-seven Upper East Side donors gave Schumer’s committee $28,500, the top dollar amount allowed under campaign finance law, and the list reads like a who’s who of the neighborhood.
Jonathan Tisch, who heads the Loews Hotels empire, and his wife, Merryl, each gave the maximum, as did billboard king Richard Schaps of Van Wagner Communications and his wife, Linda.
Other donors who maxed out their donations were Howard “Howie” Lutnick, who became well known after 657 employees of his brokerage firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, were killed on Sept. 11, and his wife, Allison.
The top seven ZIP codes for political donations over the last two years are all in Manhattan, according to the study, and Schumer’s organization outraised the presidential candidates in six of them.
The top contributing ZIP codes in the rest of the country, including those in Beverly Hills and Washington, DC, directed most of their political contributions toward presidential candidates.
The New York metro area raised a total of $144.6 million – more than any other city.
The city that gave the next highest amount was Washington, with $121 million, followed by Los Angeles, with $73 million.