Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million from her personal bank account late last month, officials acknowledged yesterday — a surprising twist in the deadlocked race for the Democratic nomination.
“Late last month Sen. Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million,” Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said late yesterday, after he was first questioned about possible Clinton-self-financing in a conference call with reporters.
“The loan illustrates Sen. Clinton’s commitment to this effort and to ensuring that our campaign has the resources it needs to compete and win across this nation,” he added.
“We have had one of our best fundraising efforts ever on the web stoday and our Super Tuesday victories will only help in bringing more support for her candidacy.”
The move came after Clinton’s fundraising for January paled in comparison to rival Sen. Barack Obama’s – he raised a staggering $32 million to her $13.5 million, officials said.
And the two are hunkering down for a drawn-out war of attrition over the next several weeks of primaries and caucuses, after last night’s Super Tuesday battles failed to crown a clear winner.
Several people close to the campaign were unaware of the loan, sources said.
“He’s got a huge advantage in that he is the Internet candidate,” said one Clinton campaign source, referring to Obama’s ability to raise web bucks.
Still, the loan signaled potential problems for Clinton in terms of resources — and will likely make life harder for her fundraisers as they try to secure money from donors in the coming days.
The Clintons have made several million dollars in recent years off of their book deals, and the former president’s speaking arrangements.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Bill Clinton was due to receive a payout as large as $20 million as he disentangled from a financial deal with billionaire Ron Burkle.