TOP CLINTON-ERA FCC OFFICIALS BACKING OBAMA

This evening, former FCC Chairman William Kennard will be co-hosting (along with BET President Debra Lee and others) a fundraising soiree for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama at the National Music Center, the old Carnegie Library, at Eighth and K in Northwest Washington.

From there, Obama will take the short ride to the Chevy Chase, Md., home of Choice Hotels Chairman Stewart Bainum Jr. for another fundraiser that Julius Genachowski helped organized. Genachowski is former chief counsel to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and legal aide to Kennard when Kennard was general counsel.

And last March, the two former chairmen hosted yet another fundraiser for Obama at Hundt’s home in suburban Washington.

It seems that the whole Hundt-Kennard gang that ran the FCC during the Clinton years is backing Obama.

At the center of this particular telecom brand of Obamamania is Genachowski.

A former top executive at Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corp., Genachowski is now a managing director of Rock Creek Ventures, an investment firm focusing on digital media and commerce, and special adviser to General Atlantic, a private equity fund.

Genachowski is a friend of Obama’s since their days at Harvard Law School, and it was he who introduced the Illinois Senator to Hundt and Kennard.

“Barrack is the most entrepreneurial forward looking of the candidates," Genachowski says. “He most appreciates the powerful and important role that technology will play in job creation, economic growth and as a solution to a whole series of problems that we're trying to tackle in this country."

Hundt has come to see Obama in much the same way.

“He’s got a lot of appeal,” the former chairman says.

“I think that people in the tech sector generally don’t care much for party labels,” he says. "They think that’s sort of a 20^th century way of thinking. They think Barrack is more of a 21^st century guy. They really like people with fresh ideas and they think Barrack has those fresh ideas.”

Like Genachowski, Hundt and Kennard are in good positions to help with the insatiable financial demands of campaigning for president. Hundt is a principal of Charles Ross Partners, a private investing and business advisory service and is an adviser to the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm. He’s also vice chairman of Frontline Wireless.

Kennard is managing director for The Carlyle Group’s global telecommunications and media group.

Genachowski’s contributions to the Obama campaign are not limited to the money. He and David Ellen, another Hundt FCC veteran, are involved with the presidential hopeful’s communications policy group.

Now a senior vice president and general counsel for Cablevision’s cable operations, Ellen went to law school with Obama and Genachowski.

Other Hundt-Kennard FCC officials in the Obama camp:

• Blair Levin, a telecommunications analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. He served as Hundt’s chief of staff. He also met Obama through Genachowski.
  
  
• Scott Harris, a communications attorney at Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis. He was chief of the FCC’s International Bureau under Hundt.
  
  
• Don Gips, group vice president for corporate strategy, Level 3. He was chief of the agency’s International Bureau and later served as a chief domestic policy adviser to former Vice President Al Gore.
  
  
• Jamie Rubin , managing director for One Equity Partners. He was in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau at the Kennard FCC and also served on Hundt’s Education Technology Task Force.
  
  
• Karen Kornbluh, policy director on Obama’s Senate staff. She worked for both the Hundt and Kennard administrations in a variety of posts, including deputy chief of the Mass Media Bureau.

Some believe Kornbluh could circle back to the FCC as a commissioner, possibly even chairman, if Obama takes the White House.

In a sense, Hundt and some of the others are backing Obama by default. Their real guy is Al Gore, who ran communications policy during the Clinton Administration and, essentially, tapped Hundt for the FCC job.

If Gore gets in the race, some may have to shift allegiance. Hundt is a long time friend of Gore.

Although all the members of the Hundt-Kennard gang owe their FCC jobs ultimately to President Clinton, none apparently feels any debt to his wife.

One exception is Judy Harris, who served as the FCC’s director of legislative and intergovernmental affairs. Now a communications attorney at Reed Smith, is a strong Hillary supporter with a friendship going back to their days together at Yale Law.

Susan Ness, a prominent Democratic commissioner from the Hundt-Kennard years, is also backing the other half of the Clinton team, actively fundraising on her behalf as she did for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.