Cantwell-Clinton bash raises cash, ire
By John Hendren
Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON - As New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton opened her Embassy Row home for the first time last night to raise money for Sen. Maria Cantwell, Republicans accused the Washington state senator of winking at her "no special-interest money" pledge.
If money and power are indeed aphrodisiacs, the Clinton home was sexier than the Playboy mansion last night. The attendees included such high-profile Democrats as Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle; Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee; and a hostess who until this year served as first lady.
All came to help pay campaign debts for Cantwell, the high-tech executive who won her seat with a personal fortune that has crumbled under the weight of a falling stock market. In her 2000 campaign, Cantwell trolled Washington state in a bus and vowed to be "your voice for a change," free of obligations to special-interest groups and lobbyists.
She still rejects checks from political-action committees (PACs) and "soft money," large, unregulated donations to political parties from corporate, union and individual donors that cannot be used to directly help candidates. But with her RealNetworks stock tanking and her campaign still $1.2 million in debt, Cantwell is raising money from individuals far more aggressively now than she did when she was running for office.
The estimated 125 attendees who wrote $1,000 personal checks to her campaign at Clinton's home last night included lobbyists, senators and major Democratic backers invited by the party's senior leaders. Ten people were expected to attend from Washington state, and about two-thirds of the guests were women.
The event, hosted by the Democratic women in the Senate, raised $150,000, according to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. And it led Republicans to accuse Washington's new senator of breaking her promise.
"She has certainly broken her pledge not to raise special-interest money," Washington state GOP Chairman Chris Vance said yesterday. "She's not collecting $25 checks from Democrats in Bellevue and Richland, Wash. These people tonight may not write PAC checks, but they're all lobbyists and PAC directors and Washington, D.C., fat cats."
The fund-raiser was, by tradition, fairly typical of Washington, D.C. People in high heels and suits spilled out of town cars and sport-utility vehicles and dined on chardonnay and bacon-wrapped hors d'eouvres. But given Cantwell's financial troubles and Clinton's political prospects as a Democratic presidential nominee, the two-hour reception drew unusual interest.
Cantwell kept a low profile, avoiding reporters as she arrived and departed. Although her financial circumstances have changed, Cantwell's commitment to keep her pledge has not, her spokesman Larry West said.
"She's been consistent throughout this. She hasn't raised PAC money, and she's been urged to raise PAC money from everybody from Tom Daschle on down," he said.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., now the top fund-raiser for Senate Democrats, said Cantwell did nothing wrong by accepting checks from individuals.
"Maria is doing the right thing," Murray said. "She's paying off her debt so she can focus on the Senate, and I am very proud of the job she's doing."
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., co-sponsor of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance-reform legislation, wrote her a $1,000 check from his own campaign fund. Cantwell was one of a dozen strategists to help Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Feingold press their bill to outlaw unlimited contributions to political parties of so-called "soft money."
"What she did in the campaign was courageous," Feingold said of her no-PAC-money, no-soft-money pledge. "I'm here to help her because she followed the rules that would be applicable if McCain-Feingold goes through."
But Republicans and Cantwell's critics weren't buying it. A handful of protesters gathered at the street, not far from the Clinton home. One shouted "feed the starving children, not Maria" to a passing car. Another toted a sign that said, "Maria-Can't-Budget-Well!" while another carried a sign that said, "Hillary's house of ill repute."
Critics had already accused Cantwell of violating Federal Election Commission (FEC) law by belatedly filing notice that she had borrowed about $4 million on behalf of her $10.3 million campaign. The National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative legal foundation, has filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that she received unlawfully favorable loan terms - a charge Cantwell denies.
Cantwell has been raising money aggressively to pay down the debt, but must raise it in increments of up to $1,000, the contribution limit for individual donors. She has also been cashing in more of her depleted stock in her former employer, RealNetworks.
This is one of a string of fund-raisers Cantwell hopes will pull her campaign out of a debt that stood at $1.2 million as of April 1, according to her campaign. That's down from $4.3 million on Dec. 31.
Aides did not disclose how much Cantwell had contributed to pay off the debt, or whether her campaign would repay her once she made good on the debt to a Bellevue branch of U.S. Bank. But Cantwell said in a recent interview that what remains of her stock portfolio, once estimated at more than $40 million, may leave her with less than enough to call herself a millionaire.
Vance said Cantwell has violated at least the spirit of her pledge by accepting personal checks from lobbyists for PACs and by accepting money from the campaigns of other senators, who in turn raised funds from PACs. West dismissed those claims as fuzzy logic.
"That's like saying that because a Boeing employee
writes a personal check
to the campaign that Boeing is supporting her, or she
somehow has some
obligation to the company," he said.
-- Anonymous, April 26, 2001