Let there be no more doubt that Sen. Clinton intends to fight tooth and nail for the nomination. Sen. Clinton has poured $11.4 million of her own funds into the campaign. According to an analysis of campaign finance law over at Slate, Clinton needs to recoup that money BEFORE the convention in August or lose it forever.
Debt retirement gets a little more complicated when candidates lend their own money to their campaign. After an election is over, any campaign contributions that go toward repaying the candidate's own loans serve, in practice, as money directly into a politician's pocket. As a result, campaign law (PDF) now limits to $250,000 the amount a campaign committee can repay the candidate after the election. In the case of the Democratic primary, the election will end when a nominee is selected in Denver. So unless Clinton is able to raise enough money to pay herself back by then, she'll have to write off millions of dollars she lent to her campaign.
Money talks in politics. As we've seen today, this fight is going to turn nasty...
Since Sen. Clinton loaned money to her primary campaign, she can only use primary funds to repay herself. The war chest she built up in 2007 for the 2008 general election can not be used to repay herself. One does not spend $11.4 million on a vanity project. The only way I see Sen. Clinton being able to repay the loan by August is if she is the nominee. All bets are off between now and then.
Let's recap what has happened since Tuesday night.
Clinton surrogate Lanny Davis goes off on CNN. Davis insists the delegate goal is not 2024 but 2209, meaning the full FL and MI delegations are seated.
The Clinton campaign rejects the Michigan proposal to award 69 delegates to Clinton and 59 delegates to Obama and fully seat them at the convention. The election gave Clinton an 18 delegate advantage over uncommitted. Howard Wolfson says the only way to seat FL and MI delegates is based on how they voted. In MI this would mean 73 delegates for Clinton, 55 uncommitted delegates, and no delegates for Obama. In FL this would mean 105 delegates for Clinton, 67 delegates for Obama, and 13 delegates for Edwards.
Sen. Clinton is making bold racial appeals for votes in USA Today.
"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."
"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.
See diaries from alvernon90 and davidkc for more detail and analysis on these comments.
These comments from Sen. Clinton lend insight into this exchange between Donna Brazile and Paul Begala over the constitution of a "winning" base of Democrats.
This is leading the Democratic Party down a dangerous path. Sen. Clinton is not angling for VP. She is looking to tear down the Party in 2008, not in some effort to place herself in position for 2012, but to win the nomination now. As usual in politics, follow the money. This is ALL about the money.
Stay tuned folks... this is going to be a bumpy ride.
