NRIs show funding clout in US polls

Indian Americans are emerging as a fundraising force in the 2012 campaign season, a move that is widely viewed as an initiative to expand the community’s political influence in the country.

Indian Americans are emerging as a fundraising force in the 2012 campaign season, a move that is widely viewed as an initiative to expand the community’s political influence in the country.

HT Image

According to Politico, the Indian-American cash-raisers include congressional hopefuls like Ami Bera, a California physician, Raja Krishnamoorthi, a former Illinois deputy state treasurer, and 24-year-old Ricky Gill, a University of California at Berkeley law student who is running for a San Joaquin County-area House seat and who hauled in $446,000 during the second quarter.

Kathy Kulkarni, president of the Indian American Leadership Initiative, said that there has been a forceful early push among Indian American donors to throw their financial backing to the crop of 2012 contenders.