Chelsea Clinton steps into California spotlight to rally for mother [View All]

[William769]

(01-13) 20:09 PST San Francisco -- Chelsea Clinton, who has lived largely out of the spotlight after a White House childhood, was in San Francisco on Sunday on one of her first cautious solo flights into the 2008 political arena as a campaign surrogate for her mother, Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Clinton campaign chose California, crucial Democratic territory, for this weekend's debut of the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and the senator from New York.

Until now, Chelsea Clinton has largely limited her appearances in her mother's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to posing for photos and shaking hands alongside her mother and her grandmother, Dorothy Rodham, 87, in early primary states.

But on Sunday, she hit the Bay Area as the star of a surprise campaign swing, attending church services at San Francisco's Glide Memorial Church before visiting her mother's Howard Street campaign headquarters, where she was surrounded by crowds of eager volunteers making calls on the senator's behalf.

She also stopped at the House of Nanking for Chinese food and two college locations - Hastings College of the Law and her alma mater, Stanford University - where she met with students and took questions regarding the Clinton campaign.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/14/MNDDUEOT1.DTL&type=printable