Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills - Political Forum

W.E.B. Du Bois · #1 (**permalink**) 03-30-2008, 02:06 PM

Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills - Kenneth P. Vogel - Politico.com

Quote:

Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills
By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 3/30/08 7:00 AM EST

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.

A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community — and anyone else who will listen — to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter.

Their cautionary tales, combined with published reports about similar difficulties faced by a New Hampshire landlord, an Iowa office cleaner and a New York caterer, highlight a less-obvious impact of Clinton’s inability to keep up with the staggering fundraising pace set by her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Clinton's campaign did not respond to recent, specific questions about its transactions with vendors. But Clinton spokesman Jay Carson pointed on Saturday to an earlier statement the campaign issued to Politico, asserting: "The campaign pays its bills regularly and in the normal course of business, and pays all of its bills."

Just like with other businesses, it’s common for campaigns to carry unpaid bills from month to month, but in Clinton’s case, it also could serve a strategic purpose.

The New York senator’s presidential campaign ended February with $38 million in the bank, according to a report filed last week with the Federal Election Commission, but only $16 million of that can be spent on her battle with Obama.

The rest can be spent only in the general election, if she makes it that far, and must be returned if she doesn’t. If she had paid off the $8.7 million in unpaid bills she reported as debt and had not loaned her campaign $5 million, the cash she would have had available at the end of last month to spend on television ads and other upfront expenses would have been less than $2 million.

By contrast, if you subtract Obama’s $625,000 in debts and his general-election-only money from his total cash on hand at the end of last month, he’d still be left with $31 million.

The presidential campaign of presumptive Republican nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain reported $4.3 million in debt at the end of February, but only $1.3 million of that was in the form of unpaid bills to a dozen vendors. The rest was a bank loan, which the campaign says it paid off last week.

It’s not just the size of Clinton’s debts that’s noteworthy. It’s also that her unpaid bills extend beyond the realm of high-priced consultants who typically let bills slide as part of the cost of doing business with powerful clientele whose success is linked to their own.

Some of Clinton’s biggest debts are to pollster and chief strategist Mark Penn, who’s owed $2.5 million; direct mail company MSHC Partners, which is owed $807,000; phone-banking firm Spoken Hub, which is waiting for $771,000; and ad maker Mandy Grunwald, who’s owed $467,000.

Clinton also reported debts more than one month old to a slew of apolitical businesses and organizations, large and small, in the states through which this historically expensive Democratic primary campaign has raged.

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I think the Dems should wrap things up after May 6th on the Indiana-North Carolina primaries, if they're smart that is. I wonder if the lack of funds will start to hurt the Clintons.

mairead · #2 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 08:18 AM

If she can't manage campaign bills, how the hell is she going to manage to improve the vast US economy.

AzTeK · #3 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mairead

If she can't manage campaign bills, how the hell is she going to manage to improve the vast US economy.

I'd like to say "right on", but I'm not sure the two things are related

Mitt Romney headed a pretty successful company (Bain Capital which started with $37 Million and has now assetts worth over $50 billion) for 14 years - and yet his ROI on his campaign was as awful as it possibly gets.

W.E.B. Du Bois · #4 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 01:10 PM

Clinton failed to pay her campaign workers healthcare coverage for 2 months. Clinton didn't pay health insurance bills - Kenneth P. Vogel - Politico.com

Where are those Obama surrogates at?

tresha · #5 (**permalink**) 03-31-2008, 02:40 PM

I've got MSNBC on in the background and the talking heads have mentioned her finances about 3 times in the last 45 minutes.
I'm waiting on Hardball and Countdown to see what they have to say.

Sidenote: Why the hell can't I get someone to pay me to watch the news, type on my computer, smoke cigarettes and drink coffee? I clearly have experience with it.

I'm a squire, I'm a squire! Yea!