The now-famous wine cave in Napa Valley whose billionaire owners hosted a fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg features a chandelier with 1,500 Swarovski crystals, an onyx banquet table to reflect its luminescence, and bottles of cabernet sauvignon that sell for as much as $900.
The event was attended by between 150 and 200 supporters of the South Bend, Indiana, mayor, who is looking to make history as the first openly gay candidate to win the nomination of a major political party.
Guests at the fundraiser paid $2,800 to attend. For an additional $1,000, they got to take a photo with the candidate.
The fundraiser at the Hall Rutherford winery prompted Buttigieg’s Democratic rival, Senator Elizabeth Warren, to attack him during Thursday’s debate in Los Angeles.
Warren hit out at Buttigieg for having a fundraiser ‘in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900-a-bottle wine.’
‘We made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States,’ she said.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is pictured above on Sunday attending a fundraiser at a winery in Napa Valley, California
The event was held at a wine cave in the Hall Rutherford Winery north of San Francisco
Between 150 and 200 guests paid $2,800 each to attend and some paid an additional $1,000 to have their picture taken with the candidate
The event was held in a room with a chandelier that boasted 1,500 Swarovski crystals
Buttigieg spoke at the event on Sunday. He has solicited donations from a number of wealthy supporters during his campaign
‘Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the president of the United States.’
Buttigieg hit back at Warren, noting that her net worth is more than 100 times the size of his own.
‘This is the problem with issuing purity tests you yourself cannot pass,’ he said, referencing Warren.
Buttigieg also noted that Warren did solicit funds from wealthy donors during her campaign for the Senate seat from Massachusetts.
Another Democratic candidate, Andrew Yang, also took a swipe at Buttigieg for the Napa Valley fundraiser during the debate, saying that presidential hopefuls shouldn’t need to ‘shake the money tree in the wine cave.’
Warren and another presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders, have attacked their opponents who solicit funds from big-money donors.
They have also pledged to have their campaigns funded entirely by donations from the public.
The winery is owned by Craig and Kathryn Hall, a billionaire couple who have donated millions to Democratic candidates in recent decades
Both Warren and Sanders attacked the influence of big money in the American political system.
The wine cave fundraiser was hosted by Craig and Kathryn Hall, the winery’s billionaire owners.
In remarks to The New York Times, Craig Hall pushed back on the public perception that his wine cave is a high-end venue that caters only to the super-rich.
‘I’m just a pawn here,’ he said.
‘They’re making me out to be something that’s not true. And they picked the wrong pawn. It’s just not fair.’
While the winery does offer $900 bottles of wine, it is for three-liter bottles which hold as much wine as four normal bottles.
Most wines sold by the winery cost between $45 and $65, he said.
Hall says that criticisms of the ‘wine cave’ from Warren painted an unfair portrait.
‘These people don’t know who they’re talking about when they throw me in the class that they did,’ Hall said.
‘As much as it’s frustrating, it’s more disappointing to me that Democrats are fighting with each other when we have a common goal, which is to get back to the White House.’
The Halls are prolific donors who split their time between Dallas and their California wineries.
But they have also drawn notoriety over their past giving, as well as Craig Hall’s role in a 1980s savings and loan crisis.
Massive contributions to Democrats in the 1990s helped secure an Austrian ambassadorship for Kathryn Hall during Bill Clinton’s second term.
Risky investments by Craig Hall, the chairman and founder of the Hall Group, during the savings and loan meltdown in the 1980s culminated in an over $300million federal bailout and the resignation of House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas, a Democrat he turned to for help.
Federal regulators had been zeroing in on a series of Hall’s unpaid loans.
To push back, the developer and bank operator turned to Wright, who was then ascending in the House leadership, to get them to back off, the AP reported at the time.
During Thursday night’s debate in Los Angeles, Buttigieg was criticized by rival Senator Elizabeth Warren (right) for holding the fundraiser in the wine cave
Wright held up legislation that would have given the struggling industry a $15billion lifeline and told federal officials they had a ‘choice.’
A few days later, the regulator overseeing some of Hall’s loans was replaced and the legislation moved forward.
Taxpayers eventually covered the cost of Hall’s default while the developer’s outreach to Wright played a central role in a congressional ethics investigation that toppled him from the speaker’s office in 1989.
In 1993, the year Craig and Kathryn Hall were married, he agreed to pay a $100million settlement and moved on.
The couple has since given a minimum of $2 million to Democratic Party committees and have donated substantial amounts to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to an analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission.
That total, though, is likely higher because not all their older contributions show up in current FEC records.
In 1996, they were among a group of high-profile donors who attended a coffee at the White House with Clinton and donated at least $234,000 to Democrats while he sought reelection. Kathryn Hall was part of a group of contributors who were later rewarded with ambassadorships.
Buttigieg’s campaign did not say how the campaign became acquainted with the Halls, or whether he courted them as potential donors.