(Photo Illustration: AP, Robert F. Bukaty/AP)In
the latest sign that hedge fund gurus have little influence over the
political marketplace, Wall Street billionaire Steven Cohen and his wife
pumped another $2 million into a super-PAC backing Chris Christie’s
presidential candidacy less than three weeks before the New Jersey
governor flamed out in the New Hampshire primary, according to newly
filed campaign finance reports.The
Jan. 22 contributions by Cohen and his wife, Alexandra Cohen, to the
pro-Christie super-PAC, America Leads, amounted to 55 percent of the
$3.6 million raised by the group last month, the reports show. The fresh
contributions brought to $6 million the amount the Cohens had invested
in America Leads over the past year in an effort to elect Christie
president, making the couple by far the largest bankrollers of his
failed candidacy.The role of Cohen was highlighted in a recent Yahoo News article
disclosing that the hedge fund kingpin had principally financed an
America Leads TV ad during the New Hampshire primary deriding rival John
Kasich as a one-time “Wall Street banker.” This would seem an ironic
line of attack, given that Cohen was long one of the most well-known and
controversial figures on Wall Street and, in recent years, the focus of
an insider trading investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney in
New York, Preet Bharara.The
investigation resulted in Cohen’s now defunct firm, SAC Capital, paying
a $1.8 billion fine and, just last month, shortly before his latest
six-figure contribution, reaching a final settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that bans him from investing money for others until 2018.
Cohen’s
financial largesse did Christie little good: He finished in sixth place
in the New Hampshire primary, with 7.4 percent of the vote, and
suspended his candidacy the next day.
Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in ‘Thelma & Louise’ (Everett)By Stephen Galloway, 
