Hillary Still has a Global Following
By: Kenneth P. Vogel and Laura Rozen
Nearly two years after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended her losing presidential campaign and endorsed rival Barack Obama, Clinton’s allies maintain a triad of groups that have continued to make her presence felt in the political world — and could serve as a platform for the next phase of her public life.
Her presidential campaign committee, still in the process of winding down, maintains and makes money off a lasting asset from her presidential bid — an e-mail list of 2.5 million core supporters. Her Senate campaign committee accrues modest interest on a $1.9 million nest egg.
And a thriving foundation called No Limits, founded after Clinton resigned from the Senate to join Obama’s Cabinet, works to burnish her legacy, maintains contact with Clinton supporters and pursues a policy agenda that closely mirrors Clinton’s own — health care and women’s issues.
The three entities operate almost completely apart from Clinton, who is barred by protocol from active involvement in outside groups (particularly those involved in partisan politics). But their operations are intertwined, sharing the same Washington offices and drawing from the same pool of supporters and staff.
The presidential campaign committee, for example, splits the salaries of four employees with Clinton’s Senate campaign committee, and both committees continue paying legal and rent bills and various other operating costs. No Limits has paid the campaign committee $400,000 to use its e-mail list, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
“No Limits has allowed a core group of Hillary supporters who were with the campaign from the beginning to the end to continue to interact with each other, and that’s important, because if you don’t keep them together, then they are going to go off and do other things,” said Kevin Thurman, who, as deputy new media director for the Clinton campaign, helped build and manage Clinton’s online presence, including the e-mail list.
But No Limits was not created as a platform-in-waiting for Clinton when she leaves the State Department, according to its president and founder, Ann Lewis.
A top aide to Bill Clinton’s White House and a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s two Senate bids and presidential campaign, Lewis was paid by a Clinton political action committee called Hill PAC (also briefly headquartered in the same downtown office) until starting No Limits, which also employs two other staffers who worked on Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“The original idea,” said Lewis, “was that there were a number of people who had been active and supportive of Hillary’s campaign, who wanted to continue to stay in touch with one another and continue to be engaged on issues that she had championed. And we have found increasingly that they also now enjoy learning about what the work that she’s doing and the initiatives that she’s taking as secretary of state that doesn’t get a lot of press coverage.”
Lewis said she has only communicated a couple of times with Clinton about the group and its mission, which, Lewis stressed, is focused on policy, not boosting her or anyone else politically. Its website says the group was “inspired by Secretary Clinton’s leadership,” and it features clips of Clinton appearing on Sunday public affairs shows, press releases praising her diplomatic work and the Clinton quote upon which the group’s name is based (“With our ingenuity, innovative spirit and creativity, there are no limits to what is possible in America.”).
The group’s first conference in November was described in a story circulated by No Limits as “really more of a reunion” for supporters of Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Lewis wouldn’t discuss No Limits’ finances, except to say that the group receives a mix of individual donations and group or corporate sponsorships.
According to an FEC report filed this month by Clinton’s presidential campaign committee, No Limits rents space, at a cost of $1,000 per month, from the committee, while a Clinton-linked firm now organizing events for the State Department pays the committee $1,200-a-month for space in the campaign committee’s office suite.
It can take years for big campaign committees — particularly presidential ones — to wind down operations, settle outstanding bills and deal with sometimes costly legal issues, all of which requires committees to keep cash in the bank. Clinton’s campaign finished the presidential race in bad shape, carrying an embarrassing $7.6 million in debt that could have hampered any future political maneuverings.
But a report filed this month with the FEC shows that at the end of March, Clinton’s presidential campaign had paid back all but $771,000 of that debt (which is still owed to her presidential campaign pollster Mark Penn), and had an impressive $624,000 in the bank, thanks mostly to hefty rental fees paid by No Limits and other groups to rent Clinton’s e-mail list since she became the nation’s top diplomat last year.
Last month alone, former Facebook executive Chris Kelly’s campaign for California attorney general paid $32,000 to rent the list, while the Democratic consulting firm Blackrock Associates spent $10,000. Since January 2009, though, the biggest renter by far was Hill PAC, which paid $822,000 to send e-mails to the list last January, not long before it closed down operations.
A source familiar with Clinton’s political groups said Hill PAC’s payments were for e-mails sent “in the latter half of 2008, on behalf of various Democratic candidates, consistent with [Hill PAC’s] mission,” but that it took until January to raise the funds necessary to pay the fair market value of the rentals.
In all, since Clinton joined the Obama Cabinet, candidates, committees and companies have paid more than $2.9 million (including $170,000 in the first three months of this year) to her presidential campaign to rent its list.
Clinton has said in a series of interviews that, though she loves being secretary of state, she finds the job grueling and can’t imagine doing it beyond one term. “It wears you out,” she told Esquire.
Doug Hattaway, a senior aide in her presidential campaign, said “her brand is as strong as it ever has been. Her approval rating is as high as anyone in Washington, and she’s building a global following.”
As for what that future would be, Clinton told PBS’s Tavis Smiley that she could imagine “going back to private life and spending time reading and writing and maybe teaching, doing some personal travel ... just focusing on issues of women, girls, families, the kind of intersection between what’s considered ‘realpolitik’ and real life politics, which has always fascinated me.”
SOURCE
Nearly two years after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended her losing presidential campaign and endorsed rival Barack Obama, Clinton’s allies maintain a triad of groups that have continued to make her presence felt in the political world — and could serve as a platform for the next phase of her public life.
Her presidential campaign committee, still in the process of winding down, maintains and makes money off a lasting asset from her presidential bid — an e-mail list of 2.5 million core supporters. Her Senate campaign committee accrues modest interest on a $1.9 million nest egg.
And a thriving foundation called No Limits, founded after Clinton resigned from the Senate to join Obama’s Cabinet, works to burnish her legacy, maintains contact with Clinton supporters and pursues a policy agenda that closely mirrors Clinton’s own — health care and women’s issues.
The three entities operate almost completely apart from Clinton, who is barred by protocol from active involvement in outside groups (particularly those involved in partisan politics). But their operations are intertwined, sharing the same Washington offices and drawing from the same pool of supporters and staff.
The presidential campaign committee, for example, splits the salaries of four employees with Clinton’s Senate campaign committee, and both committees continue paying legal and rent bills and various other operating costs. No Limits has paid the campaign committee $400,000 to use its e-mail list, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
“No Limits has allowed a core group of Hillary supporters who were with the campaign from the beginning to the end to continue to interact with each other, and that’s important, because if you don’t keep them together, then they are going to go off and do other things,” said Kevin Thurman, who, as deputy new media director for the Clinton campaign, helped build and manage Clinton’s online presence, including the e-mail list.
But No Limits was not created as a platform-in-waiting for Clinton when she leaves the State Department, according to its president and founder, Ann Lewis.
A top aide to Bill Clinton’s White House and a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s two Senate bids and presidential campaign, Lewis was paid by a Clinton political action committee called Hill PAC (also briefly headquartered in the same downtown office) until starting No Limits, which also employs two other staffers who worked on Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“The original idea,” said Lewis, “was that there were a number of people who had been active and supportive of Hillary’s campaign, who wanted to continue to stay in touch with one another and continue to be engaged on issues that she had championed. And we have found increasingly that they also now enjoy learning about what the work that she’s doing and the initiatives that she’s taking as secretary of state that doesn’t get a lot of press coverage.”
Lewis said she has only communicated a couple of times with Clinton about the group and its mission, which, Lewis stressed, is focused on policy, not boosting her or anyone else politically. Its website says the group was “inspired by Secretary Clinton’s leadership,” and it features clips of Clinton appearing on Sunday public affairs shows, press releases praising her diplomatic work and the Clinton quote upon which the group’s name is based (“With our ingenuity, innovative spirit and creativity, there are no limits to what is possible in America.”).
The group’s first conference in November was described in a story circulated by No Limits as “really more of a reunion” for supporters of Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Lewis wouldn’t discuss No Limits’ finances, except to say that the group receives a mix of individual donations and group or corporate sponsorships.
According to an FEC report filed this month by Clinton’s presidential campaign committee, No Limits rents space, at a cost of $1,000 per month, from the committee, while a Clinton-linked firm now organizing events for the State Department pays the committee $1,200-a-month for space in the campaign committee’s office suite.
It can take years for big campaign committees — particularly presidential ones — to wind down operations, settle outstanding bills and deal with sometimes costly legal issues, all of which requires committees to keep cash in the bank. Clinton’s campaign finished the presidential race in bad shape, carrying an embarrassing $7.6 million in debt that could have hampered any future political maneuverings.
But a report filed this month with the FEC shows that at the end of March, Clinton’s presidential campaign had paid back all but $771,000 of that debt (which is still owed to her presidential campaign pollster Mark Penn), and had an impressive $624,000 in the bank, thanks mostly to hefty rental fees paid by No Limits and other groups to rent Clinton’s e-mail list since she became the nation’s top diplomat last year.
Last month alone, former Facebook executive Chris Kelly’s campaign for California attorney general paid $32,000 to rent the list, while the Democratic consulting firm Blackrock Associates spent $10,000. Since January 2009, though, the biggest renter by far was Hill PAC, which paid $822,000 to send e-mails to the list last January, not long before it closed down operations.
A source familiar with Clinton’s political groups said Hill PAC’s payments were for e-mails sent “in the latter half of 2008, on behalf of various Democratic candidates, consistent with [Hill PAC’s] mission,” but that it took until January to raise the funds necessary to pay the fair market value of the rentals.
In all, since Clinton joined the Obama Cabinet, candidates, committees and companies have paid more than $2.9 million (including $170,000 in the first three months of this year) to her presidential campaign to rent its list.
Clinton has said in a series of interviews that, though she loves being secretary of state, she finds the job grueling and can’t imagine doing it beyond one term. “It wears you out,” she told Esquire.
Doug Hattaway, a senior aide in her presidential campaign, said “her brand is as strong as it ever has been. Her approval rating is as high as anyone in Washington, and she’s building a global following.”
As for what that future would be, Clinton told PBS’s Tavis Smiley that she could imagine “going back to private life and spending time reading and writing and maybe teaching, doing some personal travel ... just focusing on issues of women, girls, families, the kind of intersection between what’s considered ‘realpolitik’ and real life politics, which has always fascinated me.”
SOURCE
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