Pro-Hillary Clinton PAC raised $4M in '13

A super PAC promoting a Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in 2016 raised more than $4 million last year to aid the former secretary of state should she choose to seek the White House.

The political action committee, Ready for Hillary, built a "grassroots army" with donations from 33,361 people last year, it said in a statement.

The donations demonstrated a "groundswell of enthusiasm for Hillary's potential run and the steadfast commitment of our supporters," said Adam Parkhomenko, the group's executive director.

The committee's activity calls attention to the early preparations that political groups are making, 34 months before the presidential election, when President Barack Obama is ineligible to run for a third term.

Clinton, a former first lady and U.S. senator from New York, has said she'll make a decision on a presidential campaign sometime this year. With her high approval ratings and name identification in the Democratic Party, she faces less urgency to make a decision than some lesser-known politicians considering a bid.

"It's such a difficult decision, and it's one that I am not going to rush into," Clinton told ABC's Barbara Walters last month.

Ready for Hillary raised at least $2.75 million in the second half of 2013 and will detail donors and amounts to the Federal Election Commission by Jan. 31, it said.

The committee reported to the FEC in July that it raised $1.25 million in the first half of 2013 from donors including Equidex Inc. chairman James Hormel, philanthropist Susie Tompkins Buell and Thomas F. McLarty III, who was President Bill Clinton's first White House chief of staff. The committee is voluntarily limiting donations to $25,000 per person, though as a super-PAC it can raise money in unlimited amounts.