LINK Next stop Little Rock?

Quiet Hillary taps city for cash

February 27, 2000

BY LYNN SWEET SUN-TIMES WASHINGTON BUREAU

Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to her native Chicago on Friday to raise money for her New York Senate race with her campaign unusually publicity shy, fearful that out-of-state fund-raising would erode her success in shedding the carpetbagger label.

"If you know anybody in New York, please talk to them. If you travel to New York, please, say a word about the campaign and encourage people to be open to my candidacy and to consider voting for me," the first lady told more than 200 donors at a $100-a-person Friday afternoon reception that was the cheapest of four events.

Dipping into networks of childhood friends, the money-raising muscle of the Daley family, plus local contributors cultivated by President Clinton and the first lady while in the White House, Clinton raised about $290,000 from four events. Bill Daley Jr., the son of Commerce Secretary William Daley, introduced Clinton at the reception while his grandmother, Eleanor "Sis" Daley, loaned her name to a Friday high-end dinner party.

Clinton raised money at a $1,000-a-head lunch with about 80 donors and the $2,000-a-person dinner attended by 70 Friday. A $1,000-a-plate breakfast Saturday expected to draw 50 people.

With the campaign not looking to draw attention to the non-New York fund-raisers, coverage was discouraged and photographers were denied any access to the candidate, even at the reception, held at Riva's, a Navy Pier restaurant. Transcripts of remarks and pool coverage routinely are made available at fund-raisers where President Clinton speaks.

Bruce Teitelbaum, campaign manager to likely challenger New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, attacked Clinton's out-of-state fund-raiser, telling the Associated Press that Clinton was "running a campaign based out of California, Illinois and Massachusetts." A New York Times/CBS poll shows that Clinton, who moved to New York, is eroding the carpetbagger charge, with 38 percent now considering her a New York resident compared with 26 percent in the fall.

-- canthappen (n@ysayer.com), February 27, 2000

Answers

The only thing Billary ARE good at is raising campaign $$$$$, one of the main reasons they have gotten so far. And those $$$$$ connections can put the scare in me. Billary HAVE clout!

-- Ruth Angell (bar @bpsinet.com), February 27, 2000.

No one who has read any of my other posts on political subjects will accuse me of being a Hillary supporter, but in this case I think it's a bit hypocritical of Giuliani's people to be criticizing her for out- of-state fund-raising, given that I've gotten some fund-raising letters from him in Pennsylvania.

-- Markus Archus (apxov@mail.com), February 27, 2000.

Maybe she should try her hand at investing in "cattle futures" again.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 27, 2000.