Why Would DNC Leaders Throw Shade at Black and LGBT Donors?

Thanks to a nearly 20,000-strong email Wikileak from top members of the Democratic National Committee, an institution that purports unbiased assistance, support, and services to all presidential nominees from the Democratic party, the DNC’s weekend was a real pain in the ass. Revelations of a longstanding bias in favor of Hillary Clinton — and mockery of fellow presidential nominee Bernie Sanders — lead to the resignation of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

However, as more emails are sifted through, people are finding shady dealings and flat-out shade.

We did our own digging and found a few gnarly threads that don’t fare well for the DNC’s LGBT Council, in particular to the man appointed to lead said LGBT Council, Scott Comer, who also serves as finance chair for the org.

As he’s discussing two donors — Robert Smith and Rod Grozier who are on the host committee for planning an LGBT Gala for the DNC — Scott tells DNC Finance Chair consultant Zachary Allen: “I hate these people so much,” before going on to bash the gentleman’s “stupid promo party in NY.”

Additionally, the talk surrounding the fundraisers imply (quite sternly) that Smith and Grozier aren’t fit for the task. “These guys are something else,” writes Allen. Comer responds: “I don’t know who empowered them, but they royally fucked up.” 

Robert Smith is the global chief merchandising gfficer for Haddad Brands, whose client list consists of well-known names such as Nike, Levi’s, Converse, and others. Rod Grozier is the president and CEO of Gro Development.

But how does the DNC describe past donors in their quest for future donations? We’ve taken a look at Paula Fahl’s LGBT Exit Memo, and provided a few summations. These are her notes on some of the donors and event planners:

• Laura Ricketts – Laura wants to decide with a few other women in the LPAC world what they want to do at the convention. We have been in long term discussions about her convention gift and how she can use her package. I schedule all of our conversations through Patrick Lannon. Keep in mind she is going to have to make up for only giving 10k in 2015
• Justin Berns – Justin is 33,400 away from the next convention package. He has pledged this money to the gala. He is squirrelly – start chasing immediately. He has had a call recently from DWS. I followed up – he is going to give before the June deadline – needs to be followed up with constantly.
• (For a black caucus) AfAm Washington DC 5/19/2015 hosted by Darrin Glymph. Earl Fowlkes, Earnest Hopkins, and Brickson Diamond. This was a wildly successful event in terms of identifying black gay men that are interested in getting involved. However the 3 hosts that filled the room incredibly for this event were extremely hard to wrangle for the actual gala. If I were trying to utilize this list better for the next gala I would go straight to the guest attendees rather than focusing on the hosts. The hosts waited too long to reach out to their network and by the time they got back to me, the gala had sold out. Darrin would like to become more involved but he is hard to get in touch with and is extremely high maintenance. I found him to be too much work for what he is worth (maybe a 5k check). 
• And of Colorado’s own beloved philanthropist, Jon Stryker – Jon has an off and on again relationship with the DNC. He does not like DWS and feels we don’t invite him to enough things. I have invited him to almost every event possible this year – he has not attended any of them except for the gala. His money guy Mark O’Donnell is difficult to work with. Jon has been focusing on the DCCC but will give to convention – we just need to get him to write it.
• Another email shows National Finance Director Jordan Kaplan showing his appreciation for colleague Allen with the seeming reassurance of “no homo.” 

Crass and shady … light and humorous … or par for the course? Feel free to comment!

We’ve reached out to Scott Comer, Zachary Allen, Julia Fahl, Jordan Kaplan, and Rod Grozier for comment. More as the story unfolds.