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Clinton spends $5 million to keep up with Obama

BY GLENN THRUSH AND LETTA TAYLER | glenn.thrush@newsday.com
letta.tayler@newsday.com

10:54 PM EST, February 6, 2008

WASHINGTON - Facing a cash crunch, Hillary Rodham Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million in January and several top staffers are foregoing salaries this month to help her compete with a far better financed Barack Obama.

News of Clinton's financial woes came as a Gallup daily tracking poll showed Clinton with a 13-point lead over the Illinois senator nationally -- a huge bump over polls taken last week showing the pair deadlocked.

As of Wednesday night, Obama enjoyed a slight edge over Clinton in delegates won on Tuesday, but trailed the former first lady 1,012 to 933 when previously allotted delegates were factored in.

Clinton defeated Obama by a razor-thin 50.2 to 49.8 margin in the popular vote, according to multistate tallies.

"I loaned the campaign $5 million dollars from my own money -- that's where I got the money," said Clinton during news conference at her Virginia campaign headquarters Wednesday.

"I loaned it because I believe very strongly in this campaign ... I think that (Tuesday) night proves the wisdom of my investment."

Later, her campaign confirmed several highly-paid staffers, including campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, are deferring paychecks to ease the campaign's money woes.

Clinton's loan came from her share of the family's joint account, a spokesman later said. She refused to tell reporters if she would need to lend the campaign any more cash out of a family fortune estimated between $10 and $50 million.

"It's a real downer after we were very up on Tuesday night," said one Clinton fundraiser, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "You have to wonder where all that money went ... It's not a meltdown but it's a distress signal."

The idea that Clinton would have to tap her bank account would have been unthinkable a few months ago. But that was then. In January alone, Obama raised $32 million, shattering previous monthly primary records. Aides said Wednesday he'd raised an extra $3 million since Tuesday. (Clinton's campaign raked in $13.5 million last month.)

Obama's post-primary euphoria gave way to pique Wednesday when a reporter questioned his assertion that Clinton was still the front-runner. "If I were writing this story what I would say would be, 'Senator Obama came in as a challenger who two weeks ago nobody thought would come out of Feb. 5 standing,'" he said. "Two weeks ago we were a big underdog. Now we're a slight underdog."

"Everybody roots for David. Nobody roots for Goliath," said political scientist Jack Pitney of Claremont-McKenna College in California. "And the reality is, he's at rough parity with Clinton."

Obama also took issue with Clinton's contention she is better equipped to withstand GOP attacks in the general election.

"The Clinton research operation is about as good as anybody's out there," he told reporters in Chicago. "They've pulled out all the stops ... The notion that Senator Clinton is somehow immune from attacks or that there's not a whole dump truck they can back up in a matchup between her and Senator McCain is just not true."

The rivals met briefly Wednesday afternoon during a vote in the Senate, smiling, shaking hands and sharing a joke with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), who endorsed Obama last week.

"I had a big sigh when he endorsed you," she told Obama in earshot of Kennedy.

Clinton's money woes have forced the senator, who previously jetted around in a Gulfstream, to share quarters with her traveling press in a 737 plagued by mechanical problems.

She has pressured Obama to agree to several new debates, a move observers have interpreted as a way of getting valuable TV exposure for free. But Clinton's national chairman Terry McAuliffe dismissed such notion as he spoke with reporters in Manhattan on Tuesday night.

"We have done up to this point $130-something million dollars," he said. "Hillary Clinton has plenty of resources ... 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."

Kristen M. Daum contributed to this report.