Bloomberg: Hillary Wins Support from Businesses, Ex-Foes, Aiding 2008 Bid

Hillary Wins Support From Businesses, Ex-Foes, Aiding 2008 Bid

By Kristin Jensen and Jonathan D. Salant

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Buried in the campaign filings for Hillary Clinton's 2006 re-election were $3,000 in donations from America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group.

That may seem like no big deal for the New York senator, who raised $51 million as she coasted to victory in November. What's surprising is that America's Health Insurance Plans is the same group that vilified Clinton in 1993 with the ``Harry and Louise'' commercials -- an advertising blitz that helped doom her plan to guarantee health-insurance coverage for all Americans.

Why the change of heart? Clinton worked with Republicans to back one of the Washington-based organization's priorities: setting up electronic networks to help doctors share patient information. ``We made the decision to invest the resources because of that leadership,'' says Karen Ignagni, president of the group. The insurance lobby is just one of the unlikely friends that Democrat Clinton has won during her time in the Senate, more than a dozen years after her universal health-care proposal -- derided as ``Hillary Care'' -- saddled her with a reputation as a ``big- government'' liberal.
Drugmaker Roche Holding AG gave the maximum allowed to her 2006 campaign. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch threw a fund- raising event for her in July. Even some of President George W. Bush's biggest backers, including Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack, supported her.

<>In her race for re-election in 2006, executives in the finance, insurance and real-estate industries gave her about $6 million, three times more than in 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington research group. The employees of Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. represent her two biggest groups of corporate donors.

"There was a little trepidation when she got elected,'' says Heidi Miller, 53, a Clinton fund-raiser and chief executive of treasury and security services at New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. After the election, Clinton courted bankers. "They weren't big supporters the first go-around,'' Miller says. "She wants to make sure that doesn't happen again."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aG8zOsDYmRVA

Drugmaker Roche Holding AG gave the maximum allowed to her 2006 campaign. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch threw a fund- raising event for her in July. Even some of President George W. Bush's biggest backers, including Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack, supported her.