Caroline Kennedy’s husband, Ed Schlossberg, former talk-show host Dick Cavett and cartoonist Garry Trudeau must be fans of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show — because they all contributed to his sister’s run for Congress in South Carolina.
Colbert hosted two fund-raisers for older sister, Elizabeth Colbert Busch — one here and another in her hometown, Charleston, S.C. — last month.
But, according to reports filed over the weekend with the Federal Elections Comission, the New York party was a magnet for New York media heavy hitters and business types.
Colbert’s boss, Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless, and former boss ex-MTV head Judy McGrath were among the contributors — as was Game Show Network head David Goldhill, according to the report.
New York establishment icons Douglas Durst, head of the real-estate clan, and Alfred E. Smith IV, great-grandson of the famed New York governor (and grand marshal of this year’s St. Patrick’s day parade), gave the max.
So did Carol “Lili” Lynton, co-founder and operating partner of chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurant group, and Gail Furman, the Upper West Side therapist who runs the liberal Furman Foundation and is mother of Jason Furman, an economic adviser in the Obama White House.
Among the wives of well-known New Yorkers on the list are Julie Ostrover , wife of Blackstone Group senior director Douglas Ostrover, and the comedian’s wife Evelyn, who is listed under her maiden name.
Novelist Dorothea Benton Frank and Broadway producer David Henry Sonnenberg are backing the campaign, which has raised just over $300,000.
A primary election is scheduled for next week — Elizabeth is running as a Democrat — for the seat that used to be held by Tim Scott, a black Republican who was appointed to the Senate last year.
Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford — who got caught going AWOL from the state house to meet his Argentinian girlfriend — is trying for a political comeback in the GOP primary.
And just to bring things full circle: New York billionaire David Koch — who used to live in the Fifth Avenue apartment owned by Jacqueline Onasis (and where Caroline Kennedy grew up) — is one of Sanford’s backers, the filings show.