Thanks to a Republican, the Democratic National Convention just got closer to making budget.
B. Thomas Golisano, a billionaire from the Rochester, N.Y., area donated $1 million to the convention on Friday.
“It’s not a matter of party, it’s a matter of ideals and policy,” Steven Pigeon, a Golisano confidante, told The New York Times in explaining the gift to the gathering, which begins Monday in Denver.
In exchange for his money, Golisano gets a skybox at Invesco Field, where Sen. Barack Obama is scheduled to give his Aug. 28 acceptance speech. He also receives 50 additional tickets.
Golisano, 66, spent more than $90 million of his own money in running unsuccessfully for New York state governor in 1994, 1998 and 2002 on the Independence Party line.
In 2005, Golisano switched his enrollment to Republican, as he was contemplating an effort to become that party’s candidate for governor in 2006. Eventually, he decided not to run.
In July of this year, Golisano formed Responsible New York. He said he would give $5 million to the PAC. It, in turn, would give money to candidates for the New York state legislature, regardless of party.
Responsible New York is looking to support candidates in favor of property tax cuts and election reform, Golisano said.
The Times reported that Pigeon, the former chairman of the Erie County (N.Y.) Democratic party and the co-chair of Responsible New York, played a part in securing Golisano’s gift to the convention.
Pigeon had been a fund-raiser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton before she suspended her campaign for the Democratic nomination. He has since begun to raise money for Obama.
Several years ago, Pigeon also introduced Golisano to Bill Clinton, the former president and Hillary Clinton’s husband. Golisano then donated several million dollars to underwrite the Clinton Global Initiative.
This effort by the William J. Clinton Foundation annually brings together leaders from around the world to discuss solutions to world problems.
Raised in the Rochester suburb of Irondequoit, Golisano founded the company that became Paychex Inc. in 1971. He had little more than $3,000 and a credit card to bankroll the effort.
His hope was to do payroll processing for small companies, ones larger processors tended to shun.
The company, which struggled at first, went public in 1983, and Golisano eventually became a billionaire. Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $1.6 billion earlier this year.
In 2003, Golisano spent $92 million to buy the financially ailing Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League.
He stepped down as president and CEO of Paychex in 2004, but he remains the chairman of the company’s board.
In 1985, Golisano established the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation with an initial gift of $90,000. Now worth about $27 million, the foundation focuses on helping groups that support people with disabilities.
Golisano has also given away approximately $100 million of his own money to various causes and institutions in the Rochester area and beyond.
His gifts include $14 million in 2001 to the Rochester Institute of Technology for the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. In 2007, he gave $10 million to RIT for the Golisano Institute for Sustainability.
In 2002, he gave $14 million to the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Strong Memorial Hospital, creating the Golisano Children’s Hospital.
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