NYT: Bill Clinton fund-raising tour goal: $20M to recapture Congress

[DeepModem Mom]

The Life of the Democratic Party? Guess
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: June 6, 2006

WASHINGTON, June 5 — In what promises to be his most intensive campaign season since he left office, former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to appear at more than two dozen fund-raisers for Democrats around the country, hoping to collect at least $20 million for his party's drive to recapture Congress.

"In contrast to Republican candidates who are running away from George Bush, our candidates are clamoring for him in every part of the country," said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee....

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Mr. Clinton's advisers say he is entirely motivated by his desire to resurrect his party's political fortunes.

"President Clinton's goal here is helping Democrats win in 2006 to put Congress in the hands of the party that will get the country back on the right track," said Jay Carson, a spokesman for Mr. Clinton.

Yet there is another potential beneficiary of his largess: his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running for re-election in New York this year. Should Mrs. Clinton decide to run for president in 2008, some Democrats who reap the benefits of her husband's fund-raising this fall may feel a loyalty to him that could extend to her.... Mrs. Clinton is a fund-raising machine in her own right, and her efforts on behalf of the Democratic Party have made her a popular headliner among Democrats nationwide. She has helped the party and its candidates raise about $55 million since taking office in 2001....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/washington/06clinton.html