WP: Senator Clinton Sets Bar for '08 Funds

[DeepModem Mom]

Clinton Sets Bar for '08 Funds
Senator Has $20 Million for Reelection, Possible Presidential Bid
By Chris Cillizza
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, April 18, 2006; Page A03

Candidates eyeing 2008 presidential bids collected millions for a variety of campaign committees over the first three months of the year, with New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton far ahead of the pack.

Clinton, who faces two little-known Republican opponents in her bid for a second term in November, raised $6 million from Jan. 1 to March 31 -- outdistancing the 32 other senators seeking reelection this fall as well as her prospective rivals for the presidential nomination. Clinton has now raised better than $39 million for her reelection effort since coming to the Senate in 2001 and ended last month with nearly $20 million in the bank. Election law allows anything left over from her Senate campaign to be transferred to a presidential campaign.

"This is a tribute to her hard work and the depth of support she's built," said Ann Lewis, communications director for Clinton's campaign. Lewis added that 95 percent of Clinton's contributions were for $100 or less.

Among Republicans, Sen. George Allen (Va.) is showing the most fundraising muscle, collecting $1.75 million for his reelection fight and closing the quarter with $7.2 million on hand. Unlike Clinton, however, Allen faces a potentially serious challenge this fall from either former technology lobbyist Harris Miller (D) or Reagan administration Navy secretary James Webb (D), and he is likely to spend much of his war chest to defend his seat....

***

In the cases of Clinton and Allen, both spent the majority of their time raising dollars for their personal campaign committees rather than their leadership PACs over the first three months of the year -- a sound strategy given that excess cash in a Senate campaign account can be transferred directly to a presidential committee....Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) and former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner (D), on the other hand, focused on taking donations for their leadership accounts. Warner collected $1.85 million through his Forward Together PAC between Jan. 1 and March 31 and retained more than $3 million in its coffers at the end of last month....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/17/AR2006041701484.html

[wisteria]

1. I can't help feeling that if her husband wasn't former Pres. Bill Clinton

then she would not be raising this kind of money. Who is she kidding,no one really believes she will need much of this for her reelection this year. She is raising this for 2008 pure and simple.

[dysfunctional press]

2. i WILL NOT vote for her under ANY circumstance.

i just cannot bring myself to do it- she's as culpable as the real repukes on iraq...for starters.

[xultar]

3. This is DU. If you can't vote for the Democratic nominee then I don't

think this is the place 4 ya.

[GeorgiaDem69]

5. I support and will vote for just about any Dem candidate

Except Zell Miller. However, I've seen LOTS of posts on here from folks saying they won't vote for a partiuclar Dem. Casey in PA is a case in point. A good number of folks have indicated they don't support Casey because he's pro-life. Now, that is pretty short-sighted if you ask me -- a pro-life Casey or an a-hole like Santorum seems a pretty easy choice.

[dysfunctional press]

7. i WILL NOT vote for a war-monger.

i have a conscience- it's that simple.

[goclark]

10. I'd rather have the Clintons in the WH than a repeat

Republican any day of the week, any hour of the day.

[dysfunctional press]

11. i'd prefer real democrats in the white house...

than any dlc repuke-lite of any name.

[goclark]

14. We are all free to have our views

I'll stick with working from within the party to change things.

Kerry was not my first choice, Clark was my first choice.

But, as the campaign went on, I was able to see Kerry as a champion for the RIGHTS that I fight for ~ no one is perfect and it is easy for us to sit back and wish that they would fit our molds.


I'm willing to keep an open mind and not bash any of our candidate.

I'll let the closed minds of the Republican Party do that for us.

[noonwitch]

23. Your right, my state rep is a "pro-life" dem and I voted for her

Lisa Wojno. The repub running against her ran a rude and disgusting campaign, and his anti-choice stand seemed anti-woman (he also didn't support equal pay for equal work), where hers seemed more of a true religious conviction and also from her backround in nursing. She is committed to children's issues, which, although I myself have no children, are very important to me anyways.

I may have considered voting for the GOP candidate if he had declared a pro-choice stand, and/or if he also shared other political viewpoints as I do, like a good environmental record or strong support for education or a good record in general as an office-holder.

[dysfunctional press]

6. personally, i don't care what you think.

i don't think that hillary qualifies as a democrat. and if we have yet another dlc repuke-lite foisted on us, then NO i most certainly will NOT support nor vote for the nominee of the democratic party.
if you feel that everyone in a political party needs to walk in lockstep with the party's leaders, then maybe a free society with free exchange of ideas isn't the place 4 ya...

[Dogmudgeon]

4. i WILL NOTE vote for a Republican under ANY circumstance

If you think that Hillary = Bush, then consider Ralph Nader's dime deal. Sometimes we forget that the dimes' worth of differences pale in comparison to the megabucks being given to the world-class bastards.

It's the Devil's choice either way. Hillary, flawed, is still far better than the best Republican out there. My conscience cringes at some of HRC's decisions. It cringes far more at the prospect of four more years of sociopathic governance.

There is some good news, though. There are probably a few candidates who will be acceptable to you. Sign up with the campaign of one of them and work for him/her. That's the best cure for the common Clinton.

--p!

[dysfunctional press]

8. i'll probably volunteer for feingold.

i volunteered on the gore campaign in 2000, and was sorely disappointed by his inane choice of a running mate, as well as his ultimate lack of huevos in the face of the bushco coup.

[VegasWolf]

9. I will vote my conscience, Hillary's war stance makes her unacceptable

to me. Looks like I'll be voting 3rd party this time if she wins the nomination.

[dysfunctional press]

12. same here.

and it seems that the powers that be are already preparing us to have her foisted upon us.

[depakid]

13. and it wouldn't matter

because her negatives are so high that she wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of becoming president, anyway.

[GeorgiaDem69]

15. I would think Hillary would stand a decent chance of winning

probably depending on the opponent -- not so good against McCain, better against Frist or some other wacko.

I really don't get the whole "I'll vote third-party if the candidate doesn't meet my every little requirement" thing. If you are a Dem vote Dem or leave the party and vote Green or some other fringe party that is totally irrelevant to national politics and policy. I don't like every Dem candidate but I support the party and platform and in a national election pitting one Dem against one Republican I'll vote Dem every time.

On edit I wanted to add that I would prefer someone other than Hillary. Hopefully the Dems will nominate a candidate with less baggage and a little more personality.

[primavera]

16. Then how do you hold your candidates accountable?

The problem is that Dems like Hillary have crunched the numbers and decided that it's not in her best interest to represent the priorities of her constituents, because she knows her constituents face the decision of either supporting her or voting "Green or some other fringe party that is totally irrelevant to national politics and policy." She knows we have no place else to turn, so she can safely chalk us all up in her column and proceed to go out and court the fascists for their votes and make to them the campaign promises she should be making to her constitutents. If you never stand up and say "Enough! Simply registering as a Democrat doesn't mean anything unless you faithfully represent that party's interests!" what is there to prevent people like Hillary and Holy Joe from transforming the Democratic party into any form they think will capture a handful of swing votes at the expense of political representation for the 99% of Dems who don't share the priorities of that tiny handful of swing voters? I mean, isn't this supposed to be a democracy, where the majority rules? Supporting Hillary while she sells out the majority for the sake of a tiny minority, sorry, but that sure doesn't sound like democracy to me; that sounds like a dictatorship of the minority. Why would I want to legitimize that with my support?

[GeorgiaDem69]

21. I agree with some of what you say

And I think that its appropriate during primaries to support the Dem candidate who you think best represents your views. But I also think that once you get through the primaries then its short-sighted to say since MY choice didn't win I'm voting Green or some other party. Regardless of how you feel about Hillary, or Casey, or any other Dem I would think that the Dem candidate would better represent your general interests than a Republican.

[primavera]

22. I hear you

And I take pretty much the same tack as you and vote party line even when I have to grit my teeth and force down nausea in order to do it. But, still, I'm left with this sense that our democracy has really gotten derailed somehow by the nature of electoral politics. For instance, Iowa is the first primary, so candidates spend all of the time and energy campaigning there. Well, what about the rest of the country? Don't our votes count too? Increasingly, it seems like the only votes which matter are those which come from a small number of strategic swing states. Here in DC, for instance, we're 90% registered Democrats, so no candidate from either party wastes their time campaigning here or trying to win our votes, because everyone knows it's going to go Democratic no matter what happens. It just seems like we get farther and farther away each year from the principle of one person, one vote. In real life, in places like DC, one person, for all practical purposes, equals zero votes; whereas in Ohio or Florida, one person seems to equal 300 million votes. I just don't think that's right. How can you expect people to identify with their democracy if the reality is that 99% of them have no opportunity to influence it?

[GeorgiaDem69]

24. Agree with that totally

As a Dem living in Georgia my vote -- along with the votes of all other registered Dems in this state -- is pretty much irrelevant when voting for state or national candidates. My vote doesn't even matter for local candidates. I live in Newt Gingrich's old district, which is about as Republican as it gets. Every single one of the local candidates in upcoming elections is running as an unopposed Republican. Part of the problem, at least at the local level, is the way both parties have gerrymandered districts. That type of nonsense needs to be reversed so that local races don't become foregone conclusions.

[iconoclastNYC]

17. Next the press will tell us that since she's got the money all sewn up

We shoudln't even worry ourselves about our primary.

And the DU Hillary Sycophant Brigade will nod in agreement.

[ronnykmarshall]

19. Hurry, hurry, hurry, come on, come on ....

There's another Hillary thread that needs to be pissed on!


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2576628

[Jersey Devil]

18. Pretty soon arguing about Hillary will be a moot point at DU

At least that is my fantasy, when Al releases his movie next month and pops back into public consciousness and begins the march toward victory that we all know he won the first time, only this time the real Al, the fiery, passionate Al, sans Dino running mate and handlers telling him how to dress and to tone down his speeches.

He is the one candidate who I think can bring all of the Democrats together.

[ronnykmarshall]

20. I was thinking the same thing ..

If Gore runs, I don't think Hillary will.

Maybe Gore/Clinton ????