Reshma Saujani Breakfast Fundraiser Brings Out Big Female Backers Updated March 8, 2010 5:45pm

Reshma Saujani addresses supporters at a breakfast fundraiser Monday, March 8. (Reshma Saujani Campaign)

By Gabriela Resto-Montero

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MIDTOWN WEST — East Side Congressional candidate Reshma Saujani may be new to the politics game, but the fundraising star power she displayed at a breakfast for supporters Monday morning showed some savvy.

The event at a midtown Sheraton was a virtual who's who of New York's most powerful women in business and politics.

Saujani started the breakfast by thanking her financial co-chairs Maureen White, former national finance chair for the Democratic Party and wife of former car czar Steve Rattner, and Cathy Lasry, Democratic super-fundraiser and wife of hedge fund manager Marc Lasry, for their early advocacy of her run.

"They're the mothers of the campaign and they showed me where the starting line was," Saujani said.

Both Alexis Maybank, co-founder of online powerhouse retailer Gilt Groupe and Marie Wilson, former Ms. Foundation president, spoke at the 200-person event.

Alexis Maybank, co-founder of the Gilt Groupe, spoke about entrepreneurship at the Women for Reshma fundraiser Monday. (Reshma Saujani Campaign)

Saujani, who worked at Fortress Investment Group, has challenged incumbent Carolyn Maloney's experience with her Wall Street resumé.

Her supporters were also happy to tout Saujani's dress sense.

"But it gets better, look how fashionable she is. She'll definitely be the best dressed person in Congress," Maybank said to laughter.

Entry tickets to the breakfast at the New York ballroom of the hotel at East 53rd and Seventh Avenue began at $100.

Organizers did not have an estimate of the amount raised but said they were happy with the turnout.

Marie Wilson, former president of the Ms. Foundation, speaks at the Women for Reshma fundraiser Monday. (Reshma Saujani Campaign)

Wilson, who served as president of the Ms. Foundation for 20 years and founded the White House Project to elect more women, said it was time for the next generation of women to take the reins.

"There is a new women's political leadership in America and this is what it looks like and this is what it has to be," Wilson said.