It is widely known that Hillary's fundraising prowess is heavily dependent on large contributions from a select amount of people. Granted, she has raised a considerable sum from a larger swath of the population in the last week or so, but by and large her contributors give big and many are tapped out. So what is a campaign that so desires to win to do when money is running tight?
From The Wall Street Journal:
At least two sets of Clinton fund-raisers are speaking with lawyers to figure out how to create independent entities to support Mrs. Clinton in Ohio, Texas and other primary contests. Susie Tompkins Buell, the founder of the Esprit clothing company, says she is deciding whether to start her own entity to fund commercials for Mrs. Clinton, or whether to donate to existing groups, such as abortion-rights group Emily's List, that are already spending money on Mrs. Clinton.
It's not certain that any of the efforts by the Clinton fund-raisers will get off the ground. Campaign-finance law makes it difficult for campaign insiders to fund independent efforts to elect candidates.
Still, the discussions highlight two financial facets of the 2008 presidential campaign. First, wealthy Americans are increasingly funding their own independent political operations to back candidates they support. Second, some of Mrs. Clinton's financial backers worry that she is falling behind in the fund-raising race.
Now these people have already given the maximum amount, for the primary and the general. If she doesn't make it past March or April that $2,300 is kaput. The next step for big money is to put big productions together that are "independent" of the campaign. Of course it won't be much of a surprise that these new 527s will be doing the same thing that Hillary is trying to accomplish.
Politics as usual.....
sigh
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