Hillary Clinton increased speculation about her presidential aspirations on Tuesday with the release of figures that reveal a White House-sized fundraising effort for her Senate re-election campaign.
During the first three months of this year Friends of Hillary raised a shade over $6-million for her re-election in November, according to figures filed with the federal election commission. That leaves Clinton with $19,7-million in hand for a race against two relatively unknown Republican challengers. Even for a state as big as New York, that puts Clinton in the realm of presidential fundraising and spending, deepening the perception that, despite her denials, she is serious about making a run for the White House in 2008.
”Right now Senator Clinton is running two parallel campaigns. One of the campaigns ends this November, and the other, she hopes, will end in 2008. She really does not need the amount of money that she has to get re-elected, but she will need that amount of money and a lot more for a presidential run,” said Nathan Gonzalez, political editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, a political newsletter.
Clinton’s war chest is far larger than those of other senators facing high-profile challenges. In Pennsylvania the conservative Rick Santorum, who is a prime target of the left for his vocal opposition to abortion and gay marriage, raised $3,4-million this quarter and has cash in hand of $9-million, compared with his Democratic challenger, Bob Casey, who has $4,5-million.
Gonzalez said Clinton’s fundraising edge was significant. ”This solidifies her as the frontunner.” But he warned: ”There is going to be a lineup of folks attempting to knock her off the top spot.”
Perhaps with that in mind, Clinton has resisted revealing her hand on 2008, insisting that her focus remains re-election to her Senate seat in November. She has spent the last five years in the Senate moving steadily towards the political centre, burnishing her credentials on defence issues and the economy.
Although that approach has alienated the left wing of the party, especially on the war, it has paid dividends in conservative upstate New York, where she has healthy approval ratings. Some Democrats see that popularity as an answer to those who worry that Clinton is too polarising a figure, and hope to transfer her performance in New York to a national stage.
In Democratic circles Clinton has practically been anointed the presumptive nominee. Polls show her as the top choice of a third of Democrats, well ahead of Senator John Kerry, the party’s challenger in 2004, his running mate, John Edwards, or the 2000 contender, Al Gore. Kerry, for one, has not extinguished his presidential hopes. He still has $13,8-million from the 2004 elections.
Amid the speculation, Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist, sounded a note of caution, arguing that the former first lady remained a target for the Republicans across America, and that campaigning in a large state such as New York was expensive. ”Hillary Clinton is bigger than the Senate office she holds. She is a national figure. She has to raise a large amount of money. She is not only competing for votes in New York. She has to defend herself against those sending money into the state at the last minute to try to attack her and damage her candidacy,” she said.
”Today a Senate seat in a state like New York with a big media market can run upwards of $15-million or $20-million so I am not surprised that Mrs Clinton is prepared to protect her seat.” – Guardian Unlimited Â