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Hillary nets $6M in funds

BY GLENN THRUSH | WASHINGTON BUREAU

February 1, 2006

WASHINGTON - What did Hillary Rodham Clinton get for Christmas?

Nearly $6 million in cash, thanks to a late-2005 cross-country fundraising blitz and her long-term campaign to develop a national base of small donors that would prove useful if she runs for the White House in 2008.

Clinton's strong fundraising during the last three months of 2005 - added to $5.3 million the former first lady collected during the third quarter - puts her re-election war chest to a commanding $17.1 million.

And New York's junior Democratic senator is continuing her aggressive cash campaign, with fundraising fetes planned in Miami and New York over the next few weeks.

"We need to keep raising money, pushing ahead," said Ann Lewis, a top Clinton campaign strategist. "We certainly expect a lot of negative attacks against us, so it's important for us to keep working."

All in all Clinton raised $21.4 million in 2005.

Former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, Clinton's most serious Republican foe, has raised about $1 million through the end of January, campaign spokesman Kevin Collins said.

Spencer, who emerged at the head of the Republican pack after ex-Westchester prosecutor Jeanine Pirro and lawyer Ed Cox dropped out of the race, has $243,000 in cash on hand, after raising $571,000 in the last three months of 2005, Collins said.

About 93 percent of Clinton's contributions came from people pitching in $100 or less, Lewis said.

However the small-donor push, vital as it is to Clinton's long-term strategy, isn't cheap. Clinton's campaign shelled out $2.8 million, much of it for direct-mail solicitations, and owes $1.4 million to vendors, fourth-quarter records show.