Clinton seemed like a lock here, but with Obama's gains in Iowa, everything has changed.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/10/MNGUTQ8OU.DTLCarla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Monday, December 10, 2007
For months, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has appeared to have an iron grip on California's primary election, with an army of top-name endorsers and a formidable ground organization that helped her amass a 2-1 lead in the polls over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
But with Clinton's "inevitability" armor appearing tarnished by Obama's gains in crucial Iowa and New Hampshire, some political observers are now debating whether shifts in those early states may have a ripple effect that could put California in play.
The increasingly heated competition among Democrats for attention and dollars in the nation's most populous state - which will be one of the 22 states holding "Tsunami Tuesday" primaries on Feb. 5 - is underscored by the competing schedules of the two top Democratic candidates in California today.
Clinton and Obama will hold nearly simultaneous fundraisers in Los Angeles, with the Illinois senator planning a $25-to-$50-per-ticket rally expected to draw thousands to the Universal City Walk amphitheater almost at the same time the New York senator plans a $250-a-head event across town at Social Hollywood, a restaurant and club. Clinton will appear in San Francisco on Tuesday, joining Warren Buffet for a roundtable discussion at the San Francisco Hilton before she heads off to fundraisers elsewhere in the city and in Sacramento.