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Hillary lining up '08 support
03/12/2006 23:29 - (SA)
Washington - Democratic US Senator Hillary Clinton, the wife of former president Bill Clinton, has begun meeting with top party officials, hoping to garner their support for a likely run for the White House in 2008, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
Long considered a likely candidate and early front-runner, the report said the meetings signal Clinton's first concrete, if small, steps into the electoral fray.
The paper cited three Democratic officials who said they had spoken to her or to senior advisors close to her, indicating that she was lining up support for a run.
Asked about the conversations with party leaders, one of her senior advisors said anonymously that she was telling partisans "she is seriously looking at it. She's not making any decision yet".
But the daily said Clinton did not seem to be hesitant.
"All three Democrats said the Clinton team was clearly moving ahead on a path to a candidacy; senator Clinton was not seeking advice to make a decision on running, they said, but rather was lining up support so her candidacy was on the strongest possible footing," the paper reported.
Herman Farrell, the chair of the New York State Democratic Party confirmed to the Times that he had spoken with Clinton.
"I had a discussion with her about her decision to run for president. I'm not telling you what the decision was, only that we had the discussion," he said.
Farrell told the paper that he encouraged her to run. "And I'm positive that if she runs, the people of the United States will elect her as our next president," he added.
Clinton supporters said she was still weighing whether she could win the White House.
Clinton is considered a polarising candidate after a controversial eight years as first lady, but she earned broad support among Democrats, independents and women in her two campaigns for the US Senate. She easily won re-election in November after a six-year term.
If she were to win, Clinton would be the first woman elected to the US presidency.
- AFP
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