Hillary Clinton's New Jersey backers mobilize fundraising efforts -Hillary Clinton Room Post

Hillary Clinton Room Post


CHARLES STILE

As the New Jersey political establishment awaits word from Republican Governor Christie on a possible run for president in 2016, Garden State Democrats have launched an early and aggressive effort to raise as much as $5 million to $10 million for what they hope will become a Hillary Clinton campaign.

The informal group, which held two recent “preorganizing meetings” in late October and last month at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, is strictly a volunteer effort and conducted without the involvement or blessing of Clinton or her top associates.

But the Democrats are operating under the assumption that Clinton will announce her campaign early next year, and they want to greet the new candidate with a stack of fundraising commitments, possibly on the very day she announces.

“There is and was and continues to be an incredible eagerness to start a campaign, if there is to be a campaign,” said Michael Kempner, a public relations executive from Cresskill and a leading national Democratic Party fundraiser who is mobilizing the early Jersey effort with Josh Gottheimer, a onetime speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/stile-hillary-clinton-s-new-jersey-backers-mobilize-fundraising-efforts-1.1153070