Obama team moves fund-raiser after Globe query

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

President Obama’s campaign committee is moving a fund-raiser featuring Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel from the Pfizer world headquarters to another location in New York City after The Boston Globe inquired about the propriety of a major pharmaceutical company hosting an event that could benefit the administration regulating it.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

“This is a general fund-raising event for the campaign that has nothing to do with a specific company and the attendees will not be from any one company or sector,” Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said this afternoon in a statement.

A Pfizer spokesman did not address the change in locale but defended the company’s initial decision to host the fund-raiser.

“Pfizer is proud to participate in the political process and encourages its colleagues to do so as well,” said the spokesman, Raul Damas. “All activities are undertaken in strict compliance with campaign finance law.”

Political fund-raisers are often held in private homes or commercial hotel and convention space to accommodate crowds and avoid conflict-of-interest charges. While they are sometimes held in corporate settings, management will often insist that they be linked to individual employees rather than the broader firm itself.

Emanuel, who formerly served as White House chief of staff, is slated to attend a series of fund-raising events for Obama next Thursday in New York. In one of them, he will serve as keynote speaker for the launch of a “Tri-State Speaker Series” aimed at raising money in the cash-rich region of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Attendees are being asked to donate $1,000 for lunch with Emanuel or $5,000 to attend each of what will be monthly events during the next year, according to an invitation obtained by the Globe.

The money will go to the Obama Victory Fund 2012, which splits its proceeds between the president’s campaign committee, Obama for America, and the Democratic National Committee, which the president controls but is charged with electing other Democratic candidates across the country.

On Wednesday, Obama for America announced it had raised $47 million during the past three months, more than double the $18.2 million raised by the president’s nearest Republican re-election challenger, Mitt Romney.

The DNC also reported raising $38 million, and the invitation showed the two entities’ expanded push for even more money.

It said the Emanuel event was being held at “The Offices of Pfizer.” It included an address, 235 East 42nd St. in New York, that is for the company’s headquarters.

Pfizer bills itself as “the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company.”

It ranks first in world pharmaceutical sales and produces such prominent products as Lipitor, Viagra, and Celebrex.

Its activities are regulated by, among others, federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration.

In September 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty to the illegal marketing of four of its drugs in which became the largest case of health care fraud in US history. It also received the largest criminal penalty - $1.2 billion - ever levied.

The settlement was the fourth by the company with the US Department of Justice during the prior decade.

The fund-raiser is now being held at the University Club in New York.