Text size:

Lots of dough couldn't save race of Clinton foe

BY GLENN THRUSH | WASHINGTON BUREAU

February 19, 2006

WASHINGTON - Millionaire lawyer and Richard Nixon's son-in-law Ed Cox spent about $1.1 million of his fortune for the privilege of not running against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, records show.

Cox, who officially dropped out of the race last month but has left open the remote possibility of re-entering, hired high-priced GOP consultants connected to the Bush administration, White House political guru Karl Rove, Rudy Giuliani and Gov. George Pataki.

That helped Cox develop a system to target local voters in the state and begin a national anti-Clinton fundraising push. But he was forced to abandon it all because Pataki refused to endorse him against GOP primary opponent John Spencer, former Yonkers mayor, which made it harder to appeal to donors.

"This was seed money for a serious campaign," said a person close to the Manhattan attorney.

Cox has reportedly left open the possibility of re-entering the campaign, but only if Pataki gets off the fence and lends his endorsement, sources say. Pataki pressured Cox to enter the race last year, only to throw his support behind Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who eventually quit the senatorial battle to run for state attorney general.

Year-end filings with the Federal Election Commission portray a candidate intent on establishing a first-class campaign operation in spite of a third-rate fundraising base.

In 2005, his campaign paid $172,995 to Rove's former direct mail team, the Austin, Texas-based Olsen and Shuvalov, to test out anti-Clinton themes and beat the bushes for donors. But the effort, which included trips to Texas, Ohio and Florida, barely broke even, thanks to Pataki's vacillation and waning enthusiasm for anti-Clinton crusades, sources said.

Cox was forced to repeatedly dip into his own fortune, pumping as much as $150,000 per month into the campaign via no-interest loans and cash payments, campaign filings show.

During all of 2005, he only managed to raise $294,296 from people not named Cox. Over the same period, Spencer garnered more than twice that amount and Clinton, the national Democrats' biggest fundraising draw, raked in $21 million.

Among his expenses were $286,474 to the Albany firm founded by campaign manager I. Lynn Mueller, $177,185 to Web site designer White Knight Consulting, $85,000 to his spokesman Tom Basile, $47,850 for opposition researcher Gary Maloney, who worked on Giuliani's campaigns, and $48,295 to Cathy Blaney, Pataki's chief fundraiser.

Cox also paid $53,218 to a Bethesda, Md., consultant to coach him on TV appearances.