Hillary Clinton pays down her debts a little, with a little help from Barack Obama

Hillary Clinton whittled down her presidential campaign debt by $1.3 million in July, and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama chipped in to help.

Clinton’s latest campaign disclosure filed Wednesday shows that Obama gave her $4,600, a sum that presumably includes the maximum donation of $2,300 from the senator and $2,300 from Michelle Obama. The contribution was dated July 31.

Obama’s national finance chair, Chicago billionaire businesswoman Penny S. Pritzker, also gave $4,600, dated July 2.

Clinton and former President Bill Clinton donated the maximum to Obama back in June.

Despite suspending her campaign in June, Clinton raised $2 million in July.

California remained her major source of money, $264,000, followed by New York at $225,000. On down the list was Obama’s home state of Illinois, at $61,622.

Clinton plans to give up trying to collect on the $13.1 million she lent her campaign earlier this year. But she is trying to pay off at least most of the vendors to whom she owes $10.8 million.

Obama, whose report was not posted at the Federal Election Commission by the deadline late Wednesday, has promised to help by calling on his donors to give to her.

In July, Clinton paid some bills, including $259,934 to Electrum Productions, an event and fundraising firm; $205,000 to AT&T; and $39,105 to Google.

She paid several tens of thousands to colleges and other locales where she held campaign events or stayed during the campaign.

Among the bills she paid was $333 to the Brown Palace hotel in Denver, $9,467 to Cal State Los Angeles and $35,679 to Indiana University, her latest Federal Election Commission disclosure shows.

One bill she did not pay was the $5.279 million she owes the consulting firm founded by her former chief strategist, Mark Penn.

Altogether, Clinton raised $245.1 million and spent $220 million during her unsuccessful 16-month campaign. The remaining $25 million was supposed to be used for the general election she once envisioned.

-- Dan Morain

Photo: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press

Comments

[Kevin K.]

Golly, according to head PUMA Will Bower his group had erased nearly all of her debt at the *beginning* of July. He announced it as an exclusive on Fox News (click my name to see a clip). Could it be that, once again, the PUMAs got their numbers wildly wrong?

[Susan R.]

Yes, sadly the numbers were wrong. And because PUMA thought they'd made such a big dent there was little fundraising after the first weekend in July.

2 million isn't anything to sneeze at but it's not 6 million.

In Bower's defense, he wasn't able to be in direct contact with the Clinton finance people - he had a source who estimated the number. If there could have been direct coordination between PUMA and Hillary herself to pay it down, people would have given much more. But that was an impossibility as we all know.

[SalG]

Well, this just shows how Obama distorts facts. In an earlier LA Times article he asserted that he and his wife had already contributed. Pritzker already indicated she had given as of 06/27. I can't find these contributions at the FEC even though this article says so, but I will look later in case the database is not fully updated. Here is the link to the earlier article where he stated he had contributed in June.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-campaign27-2008jun27,0,1152244.story?track=rss

[Edwin L. Jones]

I'm sure Obama would like to help more but it would take away from his own campaign. Tough balance to strike.

[The Looney]

It takes a Billage!

[The Looney]

Why are you censoring me! I'm just a Bill, yes I"m only a Bill, and I'm sitting here on capitol hill!

[Obama supporter in Dallas]

Hillary's own fault. She should have got out of the primary race when she ran out of money. Yet she loaned her campaign money even though she knew she wouldn't win just to be a thorn in Obama's side. Now you've lost your money and that's why Bill is reluctant to endorse Obama b/c he didn't help them get their money back. It's not Obama's responsibility to collect money for the Clintons, he has a campaign to run and he needs to work on that.