GOP roots for Clinton

Veteran Republican fundraisers and strategists hope that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) can revive their party’s apathetic base even as her 2008 presidential campaign has reached its final hours.

Republican insiders say that if presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) selects Clinton as his running mate, it would energize the Republican base and fundraising. They say presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) would not have to work as hard to appease conservative voters if Clinton landed on the ticket.

{mosads}“Fundraising from our Republican conservative base would skyrocket, in my opinion, because she’s such a divisive figure in conservative Republican circles,” said Cesar Conda, who raised over $100,000 for President Bush in 2004 and was a top fundraiser to Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) this cycle. “Putting her on the ticket would be the one thing to wake those donors up from their current doldrums.

“It would really be a godsend to McCain and the Republican National Committee [RNC],” said Conda, who will work to help McCain.

McCain has failed to spur enthusiasm among many conservative donors and activists, and Democrats have out-raised him dramatically.

Obama and Clinton together have raised nearly $600 million since January of 2007. McCain, by contrast, has raised only $100 million.

McCain has $22 million in his war chest, less than half of Obama’s savings, according to recent fundraising reports. (The RNC has helped close the gap; it has nearly $35 million more in the bank than its Democratic counterpart.)

McCain has also attracted a surprisingly low percentage of the vote in big primary states despite clinching the nomination in early March. He won just over 73 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania on April 22.

But Republican fundraisers predict that McCain would gain ground quickly if Clinton landed on the Democratic ticket.

“I think Hillary is great at helping us raise money — she took over from [Sen.] Ted Kennedy [D-Mass.],” said Michael Zarrelli, a top fundraiser for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign.

“I don’t think McCain would have to worry about our base anymore,” said Zarrelli, who does not expect Obama to tap Clinton. “They love to hate the Clintons, just as the Democratic base now seems to love to hate George Bush.”

A major McCain fundraiser agreed that Clinton would help McCain fill his coffers but requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for the campaign.

Dan Morgan, a veteran GOP fundraiser who specializes in raising money through the mail, said Clinton makes life easy for Republican moneymen because many conservatives dislike her intensely.

{mospagebreak}He said aside from political junkies who listen regularly to conservative talk radio, many conservatives have not formed a strong opinion of Obama.

“In fundraising you have to have a bad guy, a reason for donors to give,” he said. “You need emotion: love, hate, anger — people give for those reasons.”

Morgan said a simple solicitation from Clinton’s opponent in the 2000 New York Senate race has since become famous in GOP circles. Former Rep. Rick Lazio (R-N.Y.) mailed out a short appeal stating merely that he faced Clinton and needed help.

{mosads}“He raised megabucks from the mailing,” said Morgan.

Lazio raised an astonishing $37 million that year despite having little national prominence among Republican donors when he entered the race late as a replacement candidate.

Morgan said Clinton makes for easy fundraising because conservative donors don’t need to hear an argument for why they should oppose her.

“For conservatives, the hair on the back of their necks stands up and they hear fingernails streaking down the blackboard,” said Morgan. “With Obama, you have to spend a lot of time explaining who he is and why he’s bad. With Hillary Rodham Clinton on the ticket, she’d be a major focal point — you can just sit back.”

Sam Arora, a former Clinton aide who is touting an Obama-Clinton “dream ticket,” dismissed the Republican talk.

“While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton brought out record numbers of voters, the Republican Party can barely stand its presidential nominee and is losing in places like Mississippi,” he said, referring to Rep. Travis Childers’s (D) surprise victory in a special election in that state. “We wish them the very best of luck in campaigning for George Bush’s third term.”

McCain indeed has had trouble rallying the conservative base.

One leading conservative activist who heads a large grassroots advocacy group said: “McCain is so boring.”

Richard Viguerie, who pioneered direct-mail fundraising tactics for conservative causes, said many conservatives are not motivated to help Republicans.

“You probably have no concept of the anger of conservatives at the Republican Party,” he said. “You can cut it with a knife.”

Viguerie said he doubted that Clinton would scare many conservatives into flocking to McCain.
But others think differently.

“I do believe if she is on the ticket it is a motivating factor for the Republican base to turn out in higher numbers, which McCain desperately needs,” said David Bossie, president of Citizens United, a conservative political advocacy group. “He needs as high a turnout as humanly possible from the Republican conservative base because he’s had trouble with the base.”