Breaking News: Some senior Clinton staff go unpaid

Not a good sign.

According to a bulletin recently posted on Time magazine's blog, The Page, some senior staff for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign have begun working without pay to save money for the New York senator's cash-crunched political effort. Those reportedly working without salary include campaign manager and longtime Clinton confidante Patti Solis Doyle.

At the same time today, according to The Times' Peter Nicholas, the Clinton campaign conceded that late last month the senator loaned her own campaign $5 million of personal money. At a news conference at her campaign's Virginia headquarters Clinton said:

"I loaned it because I believe very strongly in this campaign. We had a great month fundraising in January -- broke all records. But my opponent was able to raise more money. We intended....

to be competitive and we were and I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment."

In fact, the Clinton campaign raised less than $14 million last month compared to the $32 million reported by Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. Although Clinton is wealthy and her $5 million pales in comparison to the $35.5 million Republican Mitt Romney gave to his own campaign, this could be a sign of serious financial trouble coming out of the indecisive Super Tuesday voting.

Late this afternoon Politico.com's Jeanne Cummings, quoting unnamed sources in the Obama campaign, reported his campaign was on a pace to raise $30 million more this month, including $2.2 million in new money in the past 24 hours.

Tuesday Clinton's campaign co-chairman Terry McAuliffe played down reports of financial difficulty. "We have done up to this point $130-something million dollars," he said. "Hillary Clinton has plenty of resources going forward. No one should ever worry about Hillary Clinton having the necessary resources -- ever. She's never worried about them before and she's not going to start worrying about them now."

But in recent weeks her campaign has clearly been economizing with the candidate herself, for instance, forgoing her usual chartered private jet to ride with her campaign press corps in a balky airliner.

Clinton is not the first candidate to experience financial challenges in this campaign season. Last summer, after severe staff cuts, Arizona Sen. John McCain began flying by himself in the economy section of commercial airliners. Now, he's the GOP frontrunner. Then, in early January in what would presage his campaign's ultimate collapse later that month, another one-time frontrunner, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani had his senior staff also take similar "voluntary" salary suspensions.

Clinton also said today she intended to resume intensive campaigning. But when a reporter sought to ask another question, she retorted, "The press conference is over."

(UPDATE: Tonight, the Obama campaign sought to take advantage of the surprising Clinton financial difficulties with an e-mail headlined "Startling news" to supporters seeking donations to match her $5 million, which campaign manager David Plouffe speculated might increase to $20 million. He said the Illinois senator has taken in $3 million since the polls closed on Feb. 5. And he praised the "more than 650,000 people like you (who've) taken ownership of this campaign" through donations.

(Additionally, Joe Trippi, former campaign manager for John Edwards, said Clinton's money troubles put the New York senator "at a tremendous disadvantage moving forward. The worst thing to be is an 800-pound gorilla who's out of money. The cultural shock for the campaign is incredible.")

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[Borat]

So did the 5 million come from China, India, or Kazakhstan? I hope our future asian masters are kind to us....

[WylieD]

It would be unfortunate if money determined the outcome of the primary race. But it would not be anything new.

[John Hirsch]

Poor Hillary, cant compete with the Obama campaign funders like the far right Christian Mean Machine and Saudi Arabians that are in bed with Bush.
I told you guys, the moneyed are piling their money on Obama so they can continue their parties and orgies while the poor and middle class fester in the sores from the wounds these ultra rich has opened.
I am sending you 1000 dollars girl. I promise. Lets prove we can fight Goliath.

[Phil Leake]

You are and idiot. No one on the Obama side is partying. There have been close to 1 million people giving as little as $5 to the Obama campaign. Obama does not have Hillraisers, or special friends. Everyone is equal.
The fear for the establishment in Washington is that ordinary people who unlike WylieD that can't afford $1000, or lobbyist that are on Hilary's payroll are changing this campaign.
Change is happening in America from bottom up, and WE ARE THE ONE'S WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. Ordinary people matter, and ordinary people will bring the change to America, and change the world.

Go Obama

[Ronnie Smith]

Maybe she can get some money by contacting those individuals that her husband pardoned (a long list of crooks) before he left office. Better yet, maybe she can sell all the items she stole on her way out of the White House.

[nomadikone]

I'm sure the L.A. Times' endorsement of Barack Obama has absolutely no influence on this article...

[John K]

Hillary has been increasingly calling attention to her website hoping that to some degree it would substitute for paid advertising. Unless she can develop a lot of new small donors in the constituency that supports her - seniors, latinos and women- she would end up having to dip further into her personal fortune. This is a development unimaginable as little as a month back.

[slbowman]

Fight the Goliath? So Hillary is someone who has been continually doubted and triumphed regardless over adversity? Adversity like being on the board of directors for Wal Mart when Obama was a community organizer. Or was it when she was a part-time lawyer- I mean ceaselessly defending children.
Hillary embodies the Goliath, and her most reliable demographics remain people with little education, money or those who are ESL. I am not disparaging any of these groups, but her tactics are questionable to get their votes.
When I worked in Iowa her campaign bused people from nursing homes to the caucuses, telling them she was taking them to 'a party'.
I am not an Obama defender, but given the choices I have now I am tossing him my support. The more I read about anyone in the race still, the less I like. Still, let's try to make sense......

[Hans]

PUBLICITY STUNT ALERT
First Obama talks about change, then Hillary see this as a successful message and copies him and starts talking about change. Then McCain campaign runs out of money and yet he somehow manages to come out on top, and Hillary sees this and now we have the above story. Come on, lets have a reality check. Hillary's campaign is getting plenty of money. Sure Obama's campaign is twice as successful, but her campaign is still quite well off. Either this is a big publicity stunt (along with a few tears shed) or Hillary is fiscally irresponsible. And doesn't that say something about her either way?

[FreedomOfInformationAct]

Clinton cannot keep up with the Obama Cash Cow...

Out of 15 million votes, hillary only got 50,000 more than barak,

out of 1164 delegates, Obama actually got four more than hillary,

so in otherwords, this race is a dead heat...if she's strapped for $$ now, how is she expecting to last throughout the rest of the campaign for the next 9 months against the GOP?

Time for Hillary to rethink her 'options'.

[Liz]

I'm sorry, what? Hillary is fighting Goliath? I thought Hillary was (until a few weeks ago) the guaranteed Democratic candidate, she decades of political infrastructure to support her campaign. The tide is apparently turning....

[David]

Hey John Hirsch,
I think that you have it backwards, it Clinton who was up until yesterday the clear front runner and the established candidate in this race. It just that all of her rich friends are limited to 2300 dollars for this race to be fair. Barack is raising more because he gets small donations from Americans that care how much comes out of their paychecks but are willing to contribute to a cause they truly believe in.

[david Hopcroft]

If Hilary Clinton had lost the huge prizes of California, New York and Florida then the headlines Wednesday would have screamed that it was all over for her.

You have to wonder what the agenda is when Obama comes crashing down in all three and the media have sealed their lips and put their keyboards to sleep.

There seems to be almost glee in the press now that Obama is winning when it comes to raising money.

Is that how the media views the nomination ? Are we being told that this election is going to be bought ?

No wonder McCain and Huckabee seem popular. The Republicans have rejected the guy who believed it could be bought.

[Amy Dugan]

Hillary NEEDS money FAST because her supporters are so low-income that they cannot donate like the better off Obama supporters.

PLEASE paste the link below into YAHOO to donate online .

Thanks
Amy Dugan

www.hillaryclinton.com/contribute/JMA4

[Adam Schifter]

I noticed she keeps wearing the same ugly yellow outfit. This is so sad to see. Lets send Banana Girl some green. Nah it would be a waste. She's done.

[Yasuko Kitago]

Hillary is a fighter. Never gives up. She has been fighting for women right and poor since her college age. She will overcomes any hardship for her life and America.

[tk]

Terry McAuliffe: "No one should ever worry about Hillary Clinton having the necessary resources -- ever. She's never worried about them before and she's not going to start worrying about them now."

No kidding. During her first run for the Senate, House appropriators -- both Democrat and Republican -- noted the First Lady's taxpayer-funded expenses (plane trips to campaign stops etc) within the White House budget, wondered aloud in appropriations markups and hearings what to do about this situation, and concluded that because it was unprecedented whatever would be decided would have to apply going forward, not to Ms. Clinton.

[Hate to SayIt]

I hate to say it, but if she can't even manage her campaign's budget, how on God's earth is she going to manage the country's finances?

This is a sure sign that Clinton is on the ropes already, and that she is not solvent enough to last for the long haul. In debt already and this is only the democratic primary -- and we're only halfway through at that. Do we even have to ask ourselves why voters want a change in this election?

Let's clear out this mess in Washington and reset the computer that runs this country. This financial slip-shod operation has gone on long enough!

[Edgar]

I think actually that Hillary's donors are well off, that is why they have already donated the maximum of $2300 for the primary and cannot donate any more.

Obama has less well off donors. He just has thousands and thousands and thousands more of them.

[Paullee257]

I have been putting in $25 each month to Obama for almost a year. I'm going to do it again after hitting this Post button.

Yes We Can

[Kenji]

I have a simple queation. Was Senator Clinton the only candidate who expressed concerns over the tornado situation in the south during the speeh to their supporters? who else mentioned the loss of lives and damages caused by the tornadoes? This says a lot about these candidates. I am not a citizen yet, so I can not vote, but I want some of the folks to pay attention to these kind of things. Thanks all. Great day yesterday. US is the best democracy.

[Chung Tang]

John Hirsch,

I think you have it backwards. As reported by the Associated Press:
"An analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute, which tracks trends in political money, found that Obama raised about a third of his money in 2007 from donors who gave $200 or less. Only one-third of his money came from donors who have given the legal maximum of $2,300, compared to Clinton. She has raised about half of her money from "maxed out" donors and only 14 percent from donors of $200 or less."

It's the last paragraph: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_money;_ylt=Akv8PCDzOHPxPLZxJCovlc35R9AF

[MJC]

I agree Amy Dugan, Hillary supporters are lower income and they can't donate or fundraise like Obama's big wigs. Hillary speaks for the working class. She wins them in almost every exit poll. Wake up people, Hillary wants to help the average joe. Obama does not identify with ordinary people.

I've donated $185 so far. I'm a student and it's all I can afford. Even if you can only give $5. Give something. Hillary is our only hope!

[Elizabeth]

John McCain and Mike Huckabee have both proven you dont need tons of cash to win. Hillary will be fine financially. As for Obama, contrary to the spin his campaign puts out, 75% of his money comes in the form of soft donations dontaed at private parties by, yes, Washington insiders and the very rich. His campaign is anything but scrappy.It is incredibly well organized and advised primarily by Tom Daschle, former Dem head of Senate who by the way voted FOR the war. when will the Obama people wake up? Your guy is a phony.

[S]

Fighting for the poor? You're under some kind of delusion, Kitago. She was a fatcat with anti-union walmart. Her healthcare plans failed b/c she sold out to her fatcat friends. She's been a rich, greedy, corrupt politician all her life. Did I mention she cried a SECOND time, the night before Super Tuesday? She looks either weak or way too theatrically dirty with the tears. And let's not forget the Kyle-Lieberman bill, sept 2007. She voted for what is essentially war in Iran- Iraq wasn't enough for her.