Clinton masters juggling as senator and candidate
WASHINGTON -- Among the six senators running for president, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has emerged as the juggler supreme.
She's kept up an ambitious travel schedule that often exceeds most of her rivals by relying on a highly organized campaign that orchestrates events designed to maximize her exposure.
At the same time, she has remained in the nation's capital for important Senate floor votes and used the Washington media spotlight to criticize the policies of an unpopular Republican president.
In fact, in the first nine months of this year — dating back to a Jan. 8 resolution honoring the late President Gerald Ford — New York's junior senator missed only 32 of 357 votes, or about 9%, according to Gannett News Service research. That's significantly fewer missed votes than her five colleagues running for president, although among the 100 members she ranked 10th for most absences.
"The one thing we've all said about Senator Clinton and the campaign is, they don't make any mistakes," said Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. "They are heavily into planning and anticipating problems. They are cautious. It's a very elaborate, well-oiled campaign. This is further evidence of that."
Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University, said Clinton's well-financed campaign allows her the luxury of flying back and forth from the campaign trail to Washington. Clinton's $27 million in third-quarter fundraising — $20 million of it for the Democratic primary — outpaced her rivals.
"I also have a feeling Hillary Clinton is a very well put together, organized lawyer who just doesn't like the idea of missing important things," Schmidt said.
The senator with the second fewest missed votes — Democratic Sen. Barack Obama Illinois — has been absent for 90 votes. That's nearly three times as many as Clinton.
Obama's spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said he "continues to work hard on behalf of the people of Illinois" and has been playing a leadership role in recent lobbying reform legislation and congressional efforts to end the war in Iraq.
