Clinton has raised $8M for Obama
WASHINGTON -- Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton has raised more than $8 million for former rival Barack Obama's presidential campaign since July and plans to barnstorm the country for even more cash, as the New York senator works to show she is aggressively helping the candidate who cut short her White House bid.
"I am using every tool that I have to help Democrats win," Clinton told USA TODAY. She was between fundraising events in Texas and California that brought in another $1.5 million for Obama and congressional candidates on Friday and Saturday.
Later this month, Clinton will headline Obama fundraisers in Chicago, Philadelphia and Little Rock along with 11 events to raise money for Democratic congressional candidates and state parties.
She is stepping up efforts to get more Democratic women elected to the Senate. On Friday, she issued an e-mail fundraising appeal for Louisiana incumbent Mary Landrieu and challengers Kay Hagan, who is locked in a tight battle against Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, and former New Hampshire governor Jeanne Shaheen, who is engaged in a repeat of her close 2002 race with GOP Sen. John Sununu.
The former first lady said in the interview late Friday that her goal is straightforward: "We have a lot to repair in America, and I believe that Democratic leadership is essential to fixing the damage that we are going to inherit."
Clinton, who came closer to claiming a major party's presidential nomination than any woman before her, declined to discuss whether another White House race was in her future.
"I'm looking forward to going to the White House someday and standing there when President Obama signs a bill guaranteeing quality, affordable health care for every American," she said, citing an issue that was a signature of her campaign.
Democratic strategist Tad Devine said Clinton's stature will grow in the Senate no matter the outcome on Election Day because she garnered about 18 million votes in her presidential bid.
Clinton stands to become "the most important woman in American politics" if Democrats win on Nov. 4, he said.
Helping to raise the money to aid Obama and increase Democratic majorities in Congress only enhances that standing, Devine added, because "delivering resources to campaigns is probably the single-most important and difficult thing you can do in politics."
Clinton has hit 40 campaign events for Obama in battleground states from New Hampshire to Nevada in the past two months.
Her husband campaigned in Florida last week. "Both Bill and I are doing all we can to reach the people who are not already convinced," Clinton said.
The Clintons' efforts come amid lingering signs of unrest among her still-loyal supporters. One top Clinton fundraiser, investment executive Lynn Forester de Rothschild, announced last month she was supporting Republican nominee John McCain. She called Obama and other top Democrats in Congress "too far to the left."
Clinton rejected the idea of further defections from her camp. "The vast majority of people who voted for me will vote for Sen. Obama," she said. "They understand that … we desperately need a Democratic administration to take the reins of the economy and turn it around."
Alexander Heckler, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who raised more than $100,000 for Clinton, said talk of dissension between the Clinton and Obama fundraising camps is overrated.
He said he contributed $2,300 to Obama at a Sept. 19 fundraiser in Miami and has committed to raising at least $250,000 for the Illinois senator at Clinton's urging.
"We are all very united," he said.
Clinton still owed about $9 million to her campaign vendors at the end of August, despite Obama's appeal to his top fundraisers to help retire the debt. She vowed to work to repay the vendors, but insisted her priority is her party.
"With a month to go until Election Day," she said, "our energies have to be focused on persuading people to support Democrats."