"Hillraisers" are backers that have raised at least $100,000 for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Wall Street Journal reports that about two dozen of them are planning to meet with an avid John McCain supporter. A similar meeting occurred last month.
A report from Wall Street Journal (WSJ) today (subscription required) shows that voters are not the only ones still showing anger or willing to consider backing John McCain, not just with votes but with campaign contributions.
The woman that will be meeting with these top Clinton backers is Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive and once known as one of the most powerful businesswoman in the United States and shown in the above video explaining her respect and admiration for Hillary Clinton and her reasoning for backing and actively campaigning for John McCain.
While the majority of the 300 top "Hillraisers" have already started contributing and backing Barack Obama, many have not and in a second meeting of its kind this campaign season, the first happening last month, Fiorina will be speaking with them about supporting, contributing and/or campaigning for John McCain.
The McCain campaign is pressing its case with former Clinton donors. Roughly two dozen big Clinton backers are looking to meet soon with Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive who is avidly supporting Sen. McCain. The idea, said one person familiar with the campaign’s plans, is to pluck disaffected independents, and especially women, from the ranks of former Clinton supporters. A similar meeting occurred last month in Ohio between Ms. Fiorina and Clinton supporters, the McCain campaign said.
While the WSJ article shows many reasons why some Clinton donors simply will not support Obama, including the perceived sexism, his aloofness which was complained about even by people that have grudgingly started backing him and anger over how they thought Obama and the media treated Clinton during the primaries, there are groups of prominent Democrats that have gravitated to John McCain for more practical reasons, such as their belief that John McCain has more "judgment, character, courage and principle over politics and partisanship."
Two of those Democrats made headlines recently by taking on the job of co-chairing the New Hampshire Democrats for McCain.
Jim McConaha and Valery Mitchell, husband and wife, both longtime Democrats, and both supporting and actively campaigning for John McCain
McConaha was a former Clinton administration farm official and Mitchell was a member of Kerry's Steering Committee in 2004 and supported Dodd in 2008 and a former organizer of the Democratic Network.
Why is this? Granite State voters put a premium on judgment, character, courage and principle over politics and partisanship. These are precisely the areas in which McCain stands head and shoulders above Obama.
McCain's unparalleled leadership, experience and willingness to put aside partisan politics are what America needs in these challenging times and why we are proud to help lead the New Hampshire chapter of "Citizens for McCain," a national grassroots organization dedicated to rallying Americans of all political parties behind John McCain's candidacy.
The list of prominent longtime Independent and Democratic supporters and former Democratic politicians that are joining "Citizens For McCain" is growing and with the help of Fiorina and the townhall meetings across the country aimed at disenfranchised Democratic voters, Clinton supporters, Moderate and Independent women voters, it is quite possible that list may continue to grow over the next three months until the general election in November.
The Wall Street Journal also discusses "Hillraisers" that are not planning to back John McCain but are instead joining and creating Political Action Committees geared toward pressuring Obama into giving Clinton "big role in the general-election campaign," and the WSJ claims that also involves "dozens" of those supporters.
Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, faces dissent from dozens of top fund-raisers and other supporters of former rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, who are angry over how she was treated during their bruising primary battle and are hesitating to back Sen. Obama.
Some leading Clinton supporters are starting new Web sites or political action committees aimed at prodding Sen. Obama on issues or pressuring him to give Sen. Clinton a big role in the general-election campaign. People familiar with the matter say the effort involves dozens of the roughly 300 Clinton “Hillraisers,” individuals who raised at least $100,000 apiece for her campaign.
Before Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign, there was two schools of thought from Democratic supporters.
One of those was that a prolonged primary was good for the party and allowed everyones voice to be heard so that everyone was satisfied and would unite after the battle was over and support the presumptive nominee.
The other school of thought, which showed many reporters of party leaders being worried at the time, was that a prolonged primary battle would become so divisive and cause such bitterly hard feelings from one group of supporters, that it would hurt the eventual presumptive nominee.
There is no way to conclusively judge which of those schools of thought was right or wrong until after the general election.
Political junkies can speculate, they can hope, wish or pray, but like everyone else that is watching this general campaign season, they too will simply have to wait and see what happens.
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