Last November, Shorenstein was reportedly bemoaning the lack of attention Al Gore had paid towards the Bay Area, where the vice president was heavily favored to win. "They have no problem picking up the phone and asking for 25 grand," a source close to Shorenstein told the San Francisco Chronicle, "but they won't answer the phone when asked to come out here and energize the troops." Shorenstein's call evidently got through: Within a week, President Clinton had added a rally in San Francisco to his schedule.

At the rally, Clinton did little to hide his affection for the real estate tycoon who has given millions of dollars to Democrats in the 1990s. "I want to thank Walter Shorenstein for having the guts to stand up here and say that he didn't need a tax cut; he wanted you to have it. I love him," the president said.

Dismissing tax cuts may have been one of Shorenstein's tamest pronouncements during the campaign. At one San Francisco fundraiser, the Washington Post overheard Shorenstein call George W. Bush "a lightweight, short-sighted hypocrite," who was "running on his father's name" while presiding over "wholesale executions" and "widespread incarcerations for behavior he himself apparently engaged in." At another rally, Shorenstein stated his opposition to Bush more simply: "We're not electing the president of a fraternity."

A World War II veteran in his 80s whose net worth has been set at $900 million by Forbes, Shorenstein got his start in real estate after being discharged from the military in 1946. In 1960, he founded the Shorenstein Company, which quickly became the largest owner and operator of commercial real estate in San Francisco. By one estimate, the firm now controls 25 percent of the city's downtown, which has seen rental prices skyrocket in the last five years. Day-to-day operation of the company is now overseen by Shorenstein's son, Douglas. In memory of his late daughter, Shorenstein founded the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He has also supported the East Asian Studies program at the University of California and the Asia/Pacific Research Center at Stanford.

Though most of his political giving is on the national scene, Shorenstein's political muscle extends to city government as well. In 1998, the SF Weekly found that Shorenstein was a leading sponsor of a reelection bid by city Tax Assessor Doris Ward, who had allowed big property owners to continue to benefit from tax breaks issued during the recession in 1990. With real estate prices booming, owners were pocketing an estimated $100 million a year in tax revenues because of Ward's policies.