Clinton Isn’t Paying Her Bills
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, Hillary, Money
And small businesses are feeling the heat. To me, that’s a big deal because while they’re spending untold millions on TV ads, they can’t pay the little guys and gals? Come on…
A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community — and anyone else who will listen — to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter.Their cautionary tales, combined with published reports about similar difficulties faced by a New Hampshire landlord, an Iowa office cleaner and a New York caterer highlight a less-obvious impact of Clinton’s inability to keep up with the staggering fundraising pace set by her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
And this reveals yet another reason why Hillary isn’t the strongest nominee…
The New York senator’s presidential campaign ended February with $38 million in the bank, according to a report filed last week with the Federal Election Commission, but only $16 million of that can be spent on her battle with Obama.The rest can only be spent in the general election, if she makes it that far, and must be returned if she doesn’t. If she had paid off the $8.7 million in unpaid bills she reported as debt and had not loaned her campaign $5 million, the cash she would have had available at the end of last month to spend on television ads and other up-front expenses would have been less than $2 million.
By contrast, if you subtract Obama’s $625,000 in debts and his general election-only money from his total cash on hand at the end of last month, he’d still be left with $31 million.
Political pressure shouldn’t necessarily push her out, but maybe the money will?
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, Hillary, Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:00 am
One would think that the “Phantom Bosnian Sniper Fire Episode” might have slowed down Hillary’s fundraising in March. She still has a relatively long period of time before the Pennsylvania Primary, and running television and radio ads in Pennsylvania for three more weeks is going to be expensive. If Hillary keeps piling up more campaign debt by refusing to pay campaign vendors, and then spends most of her money on Pennsylvania ad time, her campaign could very well wind up in the Red by the end of April. If that happens, and if more and more campaign vendors start to demand their money up front, then the negative cash-flow would be far more likely to drive her from the race than any statement that the Party elders could make.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:12 am
You have to wonder how Clinton can be perceived as the ultimate capable manager and leader.
Afterall, a candidate is measured by how they run and manage their campaign as an indication of how they would govern and if they can run the country.
I think more should be made of this as it’s the main indicator and it should give many pause about the misperceptions about Hillary.
At the same time, you have Obama’s campaign that has very little debt and who has run a smooth and closely knit campaign. And managed their money very well.
Kinda makes one wonder who actually is the one who would be ready on day one.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Maybe - but I’m wondering who contributed all that money in Dec, Jan and Feb? If she was given over $30 million in Feb contributions alone that means most of it was aimed at the GE. If that’s the case, that means she isn’t getting primary coontributors and it means her big money donors for the primary have topped out for the GE as well. She isn’t popular enough with the “small” donor………this is another reason I feel PA isn’t important. If she shoots her wad in PA then she has effectively minimized the chance for large scale victories in the other states due to finances…and she needs huge victories to even stand a chance. NC is the real lynchpin - if she gets buried there she should pull out.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
[...] bloggers chime in; H/T to MemeOrandum: The Reaction (Libby Spencer); The Moderate Voice; Donklephant; Prairie Weather; Hot Air; Don Surber Tags: National Politics, Politics, Think, Presidency 2008, [...]
March 30th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
[...] bloggers chime in; H/T to MemeOrandum: The Reaction (Libby Spencer); The Moderate Voice; Donklephant; Prairie Weather; Hot Air; Don Surber Tags: National Politics, Politics, Think, Presidency 2008, [...]