To Raise Real Money, You Hire a Pro

Something always goes wrong: The stuffed mushrooms are soggy. The senator’s name is misspelled on the program. The celebrity guest gets the flu and won’t be there.

Such are the crises of the fund-raising world, and Toni Roberts has survived them all--and more.

For 11 years, Roberts has made her living by making money for politicians. Today’s clients include 25 state legislators--all Democrats--and officials in local government.

Six blocks from her capital office sits her partisan opposite, John Bovee. He masterminds fund-raising for 13 legislators--all Republicans.

Their job is not just about planning parties, although there is plenty of that. Roberts, for instance, has been known to create her own centerpieces, including one she made from discarded schoolbooks for a party honoring the former chairwoman of the Assembly Education Committee.

But the Martha Stewart stuff merely serves their broader mission--to create a fund-raising strategy that will cover a politician’s expenses in a world where campaigns cost more every year.

Bovee has been a fund-raiser off and on for about 20 years. A bearded, soft-spoken man, he says that if he had to ask for money for himself “I could never do it. I’m basically a shy person.”

But when it comes to serving clients, he does not mince words: “If there are one thousand $1,000 donors in their district and the client only knows 100 of them, then our job is to introduce him to the other 900,” he said.

Roberts describes her style as “very soft but tenacious.” If people feel pressured to give money, she says, a fund-raiser has made a major faux pas.

“I remember when I was a lobbyist, I got some really heavy-handed calls from fund-raisers, saying they were disappointed in the amount of money I was giving their client,” Roberts said. “That approach did not move me to give more. It made me mad.”

Roberts developed a knack for fund-raising while living in Las Vegas, where she established no-cost child-care centers for mothers on welfare looking for work.

“Everything had to be donated--the facility, the fencing, the food--so I got very good at asking people for money,” she says.

Her current job requires a talent for that, but also the ability to cope with mishaps that inevitably threaten to spoil an event.

Once, for example, a plumbing disaster at a large country club left 700 guests without bathrooms. Averting a potential disaster, Roberts called in a fleet of porta potties and all was well.

Bovee has his own war stories, one of which proves that hosting a successful party can have a downside. This case in point involved a cigar bar fund-raiser for former Assemblywoman Paula Boland. It turned out to be a big draw.

“The problem was, it takes 30 or 40 minutes to smoke a cigar, and everybody wants a brandy or some other drink with it,” Bovee says. So the bar bill doubled, taking a big bite out of the night’s receipts.

For Roberts, these are good times. Democrats dominate the Legislature, and after 16 years of GOP rule, a Democrat occupies the governor’s office as well.

Life is somewhat tougher for Bovee and his GOP clients, but term limits have been a boon for all fund-raisers. Constant turnover means constant pressure for newcomers to acquaint themselves with the voters, and that sort of exposure takes money.

“Prior to term limits,” Roberts said, “people would become entrenched in their districts and very well known, so the need to spend enormous amounts of money campaigning wasn’t there.

“But now, no one can rest.”