Short of Cash, Clinton is Forced to Cut Spending

[davidpdx]

May 9, 2008
Short of Cash, Clinton Is Forced to Cut Spending
By PATRICK HEALY and MICHAEL LUO
The once-formidable fund-raising machine of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun to sputter at the worst possible moment for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, Clinton advisers and donors said Thursday, with spending curtailed on political events and advertising as Mrs. Clinton seeks to compete in the last six nominating contests.

Mrs. Clinton’s diminished political momentum, following Tuesday’s loss in the North Carolina primary and her narrow victory in Indiana, appears to have had a dampening effect on her fund-raising, aides said, increasing the likelihood that Mrs. Clinton will lend her campaign more of her own money beyond the $11 million she has already provided.

Clinton advisers said Mrs. Clinton was committed to spending more of her own cash on the campaign if necessary, although they spoke optimistically about a rise in fund-raising if she prevails in Tuesday’s primary in West Virginia.

The campaign is clearly running low on cash, although advisers would not say how much money — or how little — Mrs. Clinton currently has. The campaign had started April with over $10 million in unpaid debts, and Mrs. Clinton was vastly outspent by Senator Barack Obama in North Carolina and Indiana.

Some advisers to Mrs. Clinton said that the debt had grown significantly, especially because of the high cost of competing and advertising in the Pennsylvania primary last month, but they could not give a precise figure.

Mrs. Clinton had been increasingly relying on Internet donations this spring from new and small-amount contributors; the day after she won the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, the campaign brought in a record $10 million online. But Hassan Nemazee, one of Mrs. Clinton’s national finance chairmen, put the amount she collected online in the 24 hours after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries at only “$1 million-plus.”

Phil Singer, a spokesman for the campaign, declined to confirm Mr. Nemazee’s figures, saying only that the campaign had raised in the “seven figures” online, as well as at a Washington fund-raiser on Wednesday night.

Clinton advisers said they were looking for opportunities to save money on campaign events in the coming primary states of West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon. The advisers said events would be more frill-free, but they also said that the campaign was likely to go deeper into debt to vendors who design and produce her events.

On the bright side for Mrs. Clinton, West Virginia and Kentucky are not expensive media markets for advertising, but Mr. Obama has already begun broadcasting advertisements in those states.

After news broke that Mrs. Clinton had lent her campaign $5 million following the crush of states that voted on Feb. 5, the campaign brought in more than $4 million in 24 hours; and after Mrs. Clinton’s popular-vote victories in Ohio and Texas on March 4, the campaign collected more than $3 million. The Obama campaign often averaged more than $1 million a day online earlier in the year.

Nevertheless, Mr. Nemazee said that $1 million at this point in the race was an impressive total for Mrs. Clinton to have raised. “We raised a million dollars in a 24-hour period for a candidate that every pundit is saying is either toast or dead on arrival,” he said. “People at the grass roots are still willing to spend $5, $25, $50, whatever it is, to be supportive.”

Mr. Nemazee also said that the fund-raiser in Washington on Wednesday, which had been expected to bring in $500,000, had actually raised more than $1 million. He added that a Mother’s Day-theme event on Saturday in New York with Mrs. Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, was on track to bring in more than $200,000.

“That is not indicative to me of a lack of support,” Mr. Nemazee said. “We’re in the 16th month of the campaign for a candidate that everyone says has no path to victory.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/us/politics/09clinton.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin

[jakem]

1. is she going for a tax write off?

hide some of Bills less savory income this way?


What possible reason could there be to lend the campaign more of her own money...


unless she is going to pay off other debts and get out?

[Califooyah Operative]

2. "short of cash" is an understatement.

She's 10, possibly 20 or more million in debt.

[davidpdx]

3. $10 million at a the min

Yes, you are right.

[dkf]

All these numbers look good until you find out how much is for the general election

and therefore untouchable.

[Boz]

4. Vendors rely on good faith payment, she has demonstrated she wills stiff them