Astound and intimidate

Clinton plans to astound, intimidate with fundraising ‘like nothing you’ve seen’

By Amie Parnes

Major donors are ready to announce huge financial commitments to Hillary Clinton as soon as she announces a second run for the White House, according to Clinton allies and Democratic fundraisers.

The Clinton team wants to build excitement about her campaign launch, which is expected in March or April. The money blitz would be a show of Clinton’s strength meant to scare away potential primary rivals.

“The floodgates are going to open immediately, and there’s going to be a rush to get on the team,” said Don Peebles, the real estate mogul who served on President Obama's national finance committee. “There’s nobody in the Democratic Party who can match her. Not even close.”

“It’s going to be like nothing you’ve seen,” added one top Democratic donor, who supported both of Obama’s presidential campaigns and plans to throw big support behind Clinton. “The numbers will be astounding.”

Clinton is also busy considering who to have run the finances of her would-be campaign.

The wide consensus among Clinton insiders is that Dennis Cheng, who serves as the chief development officer at the Clinton Foundation and worked on her finance team in her 2008 campaign, would take on the role.

Democratic fundraisers say big donors are more likely to get behind Clinton than Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a favorite among progressives, who has attacked Wall Street interests that can be big players in Democratic politics.

“The bundler class is less likely to get behind her,” said one top Democratic fundraiser.

“The Hillary supporters that were there in 2008 will be there for her again,” one top fundraiser said. “And most of the Obama supporters will be there as well because they're appreciative of what she did and what President Clinton did to support President Obama.”

Clinton will, “do a good job of having strong out of the gate numbers,” the fundraiser predicted. “Her campaign is going to blow through what they did in 2008.”

One top donor pointed to several reasons for the confidence.

Democrats reeling from the big loss they faced in the midterm elections are anxious to turn the tide.

And there is excitement in parts of the donor class about electing the first woman president.
“It’s the kind of support I saw back in 2008 around Obama,” one fundraiser said.

One challenge for Clinton could be sustaining the money race, especially if there is a lackluster Democratic primary.

“The concern I have is that after you get an initial spike, you're just not going to have the events to keep sustaining it,” one fundraiser said, adding that donations only come in if there are milestone events, or if the campaign appears to hit a bump.

The donor pointed to Obama in 2008 as an example, saying that his campaign saw the biggest cash flow around milestones, such as when he won the Iowa caucus or clinched the nomination. In the 2012 cycle, donors turned up the cash flow when Obama tanked during his first debate against Mitt Romney.

“You've gotta have people be really happy or really scared [to get money coming in],” the donor said.