Clinton comes to Texas amid fundraising sweepstakes
© 2007 The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The first deadline in the presidential money primary holds promise and pitfalls for Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Locked in a high-profile fight with charismatic rival Barack Obama, Clinton's initial fundraising report will be a test of her strength as the party's front-runner.
Raise millions more than Obama and another chief rival, John Edwards, and the perception that she is the party's inevitable nominee will solidify. A less-than-decisive edge will lend credence to the view that the nomination is truly up for grabs.
The Clinton, Obama and Edwards campaigns have been trying to outfox one another in the expectations game. Each campaign has set a low bar for itself while predicting big numbers for the competition.
Clinton heads to Texas on Friday, where she will attend four events in four cities over two days. She's expected at fundraising events Friday night in Austin and on Saturday in Houston, San Antonio and McAllen.
Clinton had a clear advantage over her rivals before anyone even established an exploratory committee. Not only could she transfer $11 million from her Senate account, she could tap those same donors for her presidential bid.
Publicly, the Clinton campaign has declared a goal of $15 million, an amount campaign experts expect her to easily double when candidates report their totals for the first quarter ending March 31. After all, she has help from the man once called the fundraiser in chief — former President Clinton.
Clinton's husband will join her at major fundraisers in New York on Sunday and Washington two days later. The former president has been the featured guest at a series of exclusive lunches and dinners, where attendees are asked to pony up $4,600 — the maximum allowable contribution — to his wife's campaign.
Hassan Nemazee, a New York financier and longtime Clinton fundraiser, hosted a dinner for about 100 guests Tuesday night with Bill Clinton the marquee attraction. People dined on beet salad and steak at Manhattan's swank Cipriani restaurant, and Clinton stayed past 11:30 p.m.
The event pulled in $500,000 for his wife's campaign.
"I couldn't raise the money for Hillary if people didn't think she was the best candidate and will be the nominee and the president," Nemazee said. "But does it hurt that she has the best fundraiser in the Democratic Party as her surrogate? Not at all."
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