* Money shocker! Hillary Clinton's campaign debt soars

(*UPDATE: Due to a mathematical error, Hillary Clinton's loans to herself were added twice in the calculation of this item. Her total debts are about $21 million, not $31 million. A corrected item covering the first five paragraphs of this one has been published here.)

No wonder Sen. Hillary Clinton was so late filing her required campaign financial reports Tuesday night. Her political team didn't want the shocking news in it to overshadow her lopsided thumping of Sen. Barack Obama in Kentucky.

But here's the morning after, pay-up time. Clinton's campaign debt has now soared to nearly $31 million, according to numbers crunched early this morning by The Times' campaign finance guru, Dan Morain.

She added another $9.5 million in unpaid bills to vendors this last month alone, pushing her total debt to vendors and herself to the new astronomical figure, about a 50% debt increase in one month.

According to a campaign release put out Tuesday evening as election returns revealed her big win in Kentucky and loss in Oregon, Clinton raised "approximately $22 million" from other people in April. The release also touted that $10 million had poured in within 48 hours of another lopsided Clinton victory over Obama, that one in Pennsylvania, and said it was the second best fund-raising month of her entire campaign.

But the number collected is actually closer to $21 million and the release also neglected to mention that she spent $28.9 million, nearly $8 million more than she took in. She used personal loans to make up part of the difference. She also delayed payments to consultants. Including the $9.5 million in unpaid bills from April, she owes consultants and other vendors $19.5 million. Not to mention the total $11.4 million she has loaned herself.

For other campaign finance figures, including surprising financial success by the Republican Party aided by the president, continue reading below the video.

The likely Democratic nominee Obama continues to vastly out-raise Sen. John McCain, but the presumed Republican nominee is closing the money gap with the significant help of his party, according to new campaign finance reports filed Tuesday.

McCain disclosed he had $21.7 million in the bank at the end of April, compared with ...

... Obama’s $46.5 million. But the Republican National Committee is proving to be a real financial equalizer for the Arizona senator with the notorious distaste for fund-raising.

With significant time and help from President George W. Bush, the RNC ended April with $40.6 million in the bank -- 10 times more than the Democratic National Committee, which had a modest $4.4 million in the bank.

The Democratic Party's fund-raising also was a fraction of the Republicans' in April -- a mere $4.7 million, compared with $19.8 million for the RNC.

The DNC’s cash in the bank actually fell from its March total, which was $5.3 million. Democrats have tapped former Vice President Al Gore in an effort to draw donors to party fund-raisers.

Party money can be used to help the nominees in a variety of direct and indirect ways during the general election campaign. Parties can pay for voter registration, voter turnout efforts and advertising.

McCain’s primary fight has long been over, which allowed him to limit spending to $6.4 million last month. Democratic front-runner Obama raised $31.9 million last month and spent $36.4 million, according to his report filed late Tuesday.

McCain disclosed he received $17.8 million in contributions in April, pushing his total receipts to $100.4 million for the whole campaign, less than half of Obama's total of $266.6 million since January 2007.

The freshman Illinois Democrat scooped up $31.9 million last month, a 20% drop from the $40 million he raised in March. He collected $55 million back in February, which seems millions of dollars ago, doesn't it?

-- Andrew Malcolm

Photo: Associated Press

Comments

[Anon]

All I have to say about Hillary, aside from her pig-headed arrogance and complete unwillingness to admit she has been defeated is this.

42 body bags, plus 4020 (and counting)

Seriously, look up the Whitewater Affair and see what Senator Clinton has wrought.

[L. D.]

Why should you expect Hillary to clean up New Orleans with her money? Bush and the Corps of Engineers should do that. And the oil men that Bush and Cheney have made obscenely rich... along with other croneys. Those greedy Republicans. Get rich and let others clean up their mess... Oh yeah... Family values... no child left behind... Yeah, right...

[Bob from NC]

Shame on Hillary Clinton for not paying her campaign bills to all those "hard working, hard working white Americans.'

[Compton Jueto]

Hello emotionally clouded Obama groupies:

Kentucky racist? Are Blacks who vote for Obama are just as racist?

How do you define racism?

If Condi Rice or Colin Powell were running, I bet a zillion dollars that Kentucky would vote for either of the those conservatives.

Obama is a raging socialist with charisma, albeit arrogant charisma.

And --- a vote for Obama will nudge the further decline of the USA. How many "wonderful and pure" socialists countries are there in this world?

North Korea? Cuba? China?

Obama is the ultimate used car salesman. And I believe Barak is THE self-loathing racist. And many elites and Blacks are self-loathing racists as well.

See you in church.

[Mac]

Hillary has run one of the most racist campaigns in recent memory, constantly harping on issues of race, all the while crying about nonexistant sexism.

It's a shame that she continues to hurt the party.

[Irwan]

She could have contributed some of the money to the children of Burma

[Early Cuyler]

Now do you all understand why she's staying in it? The moment she throws in the towel, the significant money ceases, and the more she and Bill are on the hook for. Yes, she's in debt, but as long as she remains a "candidate", she can pay toward her debts with other people's money (how "progressive").

Despite what the media promotes, Obama won this weeks ago. She cannot catch him in pledged delegates (forget about the Supers, they WON'T split the party), and she knows it. She's staying in for 2 reasons, to keep the sucker money rolling in, and to position for 2012. And don't look for her to give any more than token support to Obama (think Gore in 2000 or Kerry in 2004). Running against him in 2012, whether he's perceived to be a good president or he's Jimmy Carter II, is an almost insurmountable task. Her only chance in 2012 is to run against President McCain, where she can conduct the standard class and race warfare for which her party is known.

[Susan]

Who, in the end, is going to pay for all of this?

Hillary's never-ending quest for whatever it is she is doing is costing a ton of money - money her campaign doesn't have. I am fine with her footing the bill personally, but I am not onboard with fundraisers or other tricks to help her offset her debt.

I feel sorry for the 'hard working Americans' who are being stiffed by her campaign. She's not working for you, she's working you over.

[carlos]

Did she get fries with that?

[C S N AZgrammy]

This is the most shameful part of the report...

She added another $9.5 million in unpaid bills to VENDORS this past month alone, pushing her total debt to vendors and herself to the new astronomical figure, about a 50% debt increase in one month.

These are small retail operators who need to be paid!!!
At Once!

[Yelena]

Where does she think the money will come from to pay those bills? Obama? US Citizens? Either way it is not good.

This is not responsible behavior!

[Michael]

She owes how many millions of $ to her political consultants? She got ripped. Next time, she should demand pay for performance.

Are these guys the "hard working white" sort?

[Curtis]

Yesterday morning on CNN, they did a profile on Clay, KY. The people in that town was so poor that it look like something you see in a movie with a coal miner look. Well that town is so poor that they interviewed some of the people in that town and they was talking about the candidates was not going to do anything for them. But one lady stated that the only thing she have is the "Lord Jesus". Whe I heard that it made me think about when Mr. Obama made that statement about people in Pennsylvania cling to "Guns and Religion". But he was called out of touch for that statement.

It funny how people that is struggling real bad, will not put there racism aside and do right for themselves. What is it that make people so ignorate? We've been talking about this racism and sexism for years. The bad do get no where! But if you like not able to live comfortable and like living in bad conditions then continue, but don't stop the dreams of others that want to live comfortable.

But everyone knows who has the last say so in this election. And its not people and it's not Washington, it will only be Jesus.

Last thing I would like to say, We need to stop saying God Bless American and say God Bless the World. Because around the world people of all races are going through horrible times. Little kids and adults being barried alive; children losing there parent from fighting in Wars across the land. People starving, and loosing everything they have.

Like it or not, Barack Obama will become the next President of the United States. And in another 4 years he'll be the greatest person in the World.

CHANGE IS ABOUT TO COME!

[grlpatriot]

I'd like a full disclosure on where Obama's donations are coming from. I think the American people would be surprised at how crooked he and his supporters are. Wouldn't surprise me if family pets are now contributors. He won't get a dime from me or my vote. Nobama!

Operation Turndown
http://wilknetwork.com/Why-I-m-Turning-Down-Obama/2202399

[Wm Tate]

"No wonder Sen. Hillary Clinton was so late filing her required campaign financial reports Tuesday night."
How much do you think the debt really is? My guess is that amended statements later on will show a much higher debt. The real surprise is that, this being the Clintons we're discussing, they bothered to file at all. They seem to think the rules don;t apply to them.
-Wm Tate,
http://www.atimelikethis.us/

[Frank Perkowski]

Ha....all of you are missing a critical point in all of this. Why is it that no one mentions how much she has decimated the state of New York? Her campaign issues pale in comparison to the financial disaster that has propagated under her rule. When she stumped in western NY to become Senator, she stated "and we'll bring 100,000 jobs to upstate NY!" Everyone bought it. Now WE have experienced her way of doing things, and warn the rest of you that this whole campaign debt issue is just another brick in the wall.
UGH! This is the best we can come up with?

[M. Johansen]

How many different words can you find in the word "delusional".
Hoping that Hillary and Bill have to pay out of their own pockets for this renditon of the theatre of the absurd.

[George in Dallas]

Why is this an issue? All politicians spend more tax revenue than they have to spend. She's been in the senate long enough to have learned.
Two words for her if she or her supporters think an Obama win will doom her career: Richard Nixon.

[Matt D]

It's funny how Obama supporters and Hillary supporters used to argue fervently over who is a better candidate, with reasons to support each (usually the arguments were mud-slinging, but still...). Now the only people still posting for Hillary sound like conspiracy theorists: "Where does Obama's money come from????" and "The vast media conspiracy has handpicked Obama". The silence is deafening.

[JJ]

In addition to deceit, here is just another one of Hillary's values, don't pay bills. The people who serviced her campaign (perhaps the white working class) need the money owed to them, especially in this economy, therefore she is cheating them by delaying payment. They should charge her interest and late fees. And she pulled the sex card. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants. You don't hear female CEOs whining. Once again no one would even know about Hillary if she wasn't married to Bill and she made it on his merits alone.

[JGMc]

Samy

What every ethnicity or religious beliefs are, you must not be to proud of them given your attempt to conceal them. More importantly, you are neither fair-minded or neutral. In fact, you sound like a Hilary biased zealot.

You like a lot of Hilary supporters constently take this self-righteous attitude in your attempts to demean Obama when in reality, he has probably done more in one day to reach out to help disenfranchised people than you have done in your entire lifetime.

[Bob from Illinois]

Great for the economy, we should do this every so often. Hopefully all of the calls are coming from us destinations and these campaigns aren't using people outside the us for their campaigning.

I have a suggestion, if the Democrats / Republicans don't want the process to drag on and criticize candidates for hanging on to long, why don't they just shorten the process. Encourage all of the states to be done in May or April. Other wise stop crying that someone is hanging on too long.

Something to think about.

[TheTruth]

hillary - can't run her campaign, can't run our country

hillary - can't take care of her man, can't take care of our country

[bub]

So, is this the person you want to listen to about economic issues???

[pharmdmsn]

The reason why Africa today is riddled with poverty and sickness is because of most of the people are uneducated and they shun change prefering to do things according to their reclusive and crude instincts. I moved to Kentucky from Africa and it didn't seem like I was in the so called United States of America that people rever from outside. I suddenly found myself surrounded by uneducated crude people driven by cultural and racial instincts instead of reason, intelect and education. Unlike in Africa, I found in Kentucky men, women, and children all tobacco smokers, amidist overwhelming education worldwide on the deadly effects of smoking. Just tells you what kind of people you're deading with, third rated, third-world-country kind of people, illiterate, driven by animal instincts, racially bigoted freaks. It is beyond reason it think that a candidate who cannot manage her own affairs and is in 31 million dollar debt can stand for the poor hardworking white Americans and manage the country's economy well. And yet bigoted Kentucky people driven by animal and racial insticts are so blind-folded and don't see anything wrong with that. Such are the people we have to deal with in November: the primitives of the African jungle or Kentucky/W.V jungle. These are the Pavlovian people who are guided by their racial insticts not by reason. We badly need people from developed counties visit Kentucky and orient these people to use of reason and education.