Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) attended a fundraiser Monday night in California with a partner from Silicon Valley Bank’s legal firm, just days after the tech-sector-focused bank collapsed.
Michael Danaher is listed as one of the hosts for Tester’s fundraiser in Palo Alto on Monday, where invited donors were asked to pay between $250 and $6,600 to attend with the senator. Danaher is also a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, representing many venture capital clients, including Silicon Valley Bank.
Via the New York Post:
Douglas Clark, a managing partner at Wilson, Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, lists SVB as a client. The firm also provided a guidance sheet for its wealthy list of international clients that may have been affected by SVB’s failure.
Wilson, Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati has worked on behalf of many investment banks and venture capital firms in the Silicon Valley region since its founding in 1961. Founder Larry Sonsini previously served on SVB’s board of directors in the mid-200s.
The law firm and SVB have partnered for severalinvestor events in recent years. The two also agreed last month to sponsor a fellowship “to address systemic racial, gender, and other underrepresentation in talent across the life sciences and biotech industry.”
The list of hosts for the event also included executives from many other venture-backed tech companies, such as Jon Foster, a board member of the driverless electric vehicle company Udelv; Jesse Dorogusker, a Bitcoin hardware lead at Block; and Greg Avis, the co-founder of the venture firm Summit Partners.
New — @JonTester is raising money in Silicon Valley tonight.
Pretty strong host committee.#mtsen pic.twitter.com/ZV3CXb8Tpu
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) March 13, 2023
This also comes after the Silicon Valley Bank collapsed last week when panicked customers suddenly withdrew tens-of-billions of dollars after the bank announced a loss of approximately $1.8 billion from selling its investments in U.S. treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. Ultimately, regulators shut Silicon Valley Bank down, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of the bank and said they would protect insured deposits.
On Sunday, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC announced that they would be taking “decisive actions to protect the U.S. economy by strengthening public confidence in [the U.S.] banking system” by effectively making deposits above the FDIC’s $250,000 limit available Monday. Over the weekend, the Silicon Valley Bank failed to be auctioned off after none of the largest U.S. banks bid. However, the FDIC reportedly plans to attempt a second auction for the bank.
Tester is up for reelection in 2024 and is considered a vulnerable member in the Democrat’s slim 51-seat majority in the Senate. In 2024, 23 of the 33 Senate seats up for reelection are currently held by Democrats or left-leaning independents. Former President Donald Trump won six of these states by double digits in at least one of his presidential elections. Tester is considered to be one of the top vulnerable Democrats.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
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