PhillyDeals: PhillyDeals: What do area's big Obama donors expect?

New Jersey's big Democratic fund-raisers, led by

Orin Kramer

and

George Norcross

, were early backers of

Barack Obama

. In February, they gave him Jersey's superdelegates and helped send him ahead of

Hillary Rodham Clinton

for good.

No wonder New Jersey

Gov. Jon Corzine's

name was floated as a possible U.S. Treasury secretary yesterday in the Newark Star-Ledger.

"There's probably no elected official in the country remotely in Jon Corzine's league in understanding financial markets," said Kramer, a New York hedge fund manager and Democratic cash-bundler who heads New Jersey's state pension board.

It was a gesture of respect. Even Corzine's allies don't really expect him to get the nod.

For one thing, he's a former

Goldman Sachs

chief. That's nothing new at Treasury -

Henry M. Paulson Jr.

,

President Bush's

Treasury secretary, and

Robert Rubin, President Clinton's

Treasury boss, are Goldman Sachs alums.

But the powerful investment bank, like all of Wall Street, looks bad on resumes in bailout-sensitive Washington these days.

To the extent they're taking bets, the Democrats I talked to expect Main Line native, Harvard professor and ex-Clinton Treasury Secretary

Lawrence Summers

to take his job back, if he wants it, with

New York Federal Reserve chief Timothy Geithner

as a backup.

Will Democratic women in the Senate back Summers, despite his ouster from Harvard's presidency for his comments suggesting women aren't good at math and science? Would Obama, who likes Summers, bow to that resistance?

Mark Alderman

was co-chairman of Obama's Pennsylvania finance committee, a member of his national finance committee, and one isolated, sad-looking, big-city law firm chairman when I visited him at Wolf Block L.L.P. before the state Democratic primary last April.

While

Gov. Rendell

and

Mayor Nutter

sewed up the big lawyers, developers and corporate executives for Hillary Rodham Clinton, Alderman counted his committee on one hand. There was Los Angeles transplant

Jeff Shell

, a Comcast executive; African American lawyers

Chris Lewis,

of

Blank Rome

, and

Chris Booth

, formerly of Wolf Block;

RAF Industries president Rick Horowitz

, and

Lehman Bros. heir Peter Buttenweiser

.

"But we kept the faith," Alderman said.

Alderman met Obama in early 2007 through Chicago Democratic consultant

David Axelrod

, whom he knew from the

John Street

mayoral campaign. Alderman said Obama's diverse upbringing made him "exactly the kind of candidate we needed" in this "troubled time."

After Clinton fell, Philadelphia Democrats came around. To be sure, they spread their bets. Comcast executives backed multiple candidates. So did Wolf Block, for that matter.

What are all those donors expecting, in exchange for their money and support?

"There were people who were generous, who want appropriate opportunity to be heard on issues of importance to them," said Alderman, whose firm has represented defense contractor

Lockheed Martin Corp.

, among many other prominent clients.

"But it's going to be hard for President Obama to provide every one of his supporters that opportunity," Alderman added. "He has a lot of supporters.

With favorite-son

Joe R. Biden Jr.

topping their ticket as candidate for both vice president and U.S. Senate, Democrats swept Delaware last night, taking over the state House and giving them a veto-proof new margin in the state Senate, which confirms judges for the

Court of Chancery,

corporate America's favorite business court.

Jack Markell

, who beat the party machine in the primary with cash from Philadelphia lawyers and developers, rolled over his GOP gubernatorial opponent, ex-judge

Bill Lee.

Obama's victory lets lame-duck

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner

name Biden's Senate successor.

Delaware's trying to entice

Fox Chase Cancer Center

and other Pennsylvania institutions to relocate south of the state line, to replace jobs lost under Minner from the imminent closing of the

Chrysler

plant in Newark, the sale of

MBNA Corp.

to

Bank of America Corp.

, and ongoing cutbacks at the

DuPont Co.

Maybe Markell's rich Pennsylvania friends can help.