Clinton Is Taking No Chances on Fund Raising

WASHINGTON — Senator Clinton insists she is not worried about the fund-raising prowess of her chief Democratic rival, Senator Obama, but a recent flurry of campaign activity suggests she is leaving nothing to chance.

On a day when her campaign was touting the endorsement of a prominent Hispanic senator, making a new appeal for cash, and rallying support among women of color, Mrs. Clinton downplayed the potential impact of an Obama victory in the next round of fund raising.

"It would mean nothing to my campaign. Nothing at all," Mrs. Clinton declared to reporters yesterday after announcing the endorsement of Senator Menendez of New Jersey. The former first lady had started to leave the event, but she stepped back to the microphone to answer a question about Mr. Obama's fund raising.

She said she was out-raised "two to one" in her first Senate campaign in 2000, a race in which she defeated Rick Lazio after Mayor Giuliani dropped out. That was an apparent reference to the combined fund-raising of Messrs. Lazio and Giuliani.

"I hope other Democrats do well, because that shows the appetite for change," Mrs. Clinton said. "But for me, all I care about is that we're going to have the resources we need to run a winning campaign, and we do."

Her comments come as the White House hopefuls are ramping up their fund-raising efforts before the next filing period ends on June 30. Despite Mrs. Clinton's advantage in experience and her vast network of donors, Mr. Obama raised more primary funds during the year's first quarter.

As it has done frequently in recent months, Mrs. Clinton's campaign took steps yesterday to undercut the Illinois senator's perceived strength among minority voters. She attended a private fund-raising event in Washington honoring 300 "women of color," including Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Nydia Velazquez of New York, and Mary Wilson of the singing group the Supremes. An aide said the event brought in more than $125,000 for the campaign.

Mrs. Clinton separately announced the hiring of a former president of the National Black MBA Association, Alvin Brown, to serve as a senior adviser to the campaign on urban policy. Mr. Brown is a former top aide to Vice President Gore and held several high-level positions in the Clinton administration.

And Mrs. Clinton appeared with Mr. Menendez, who became the second prominent Hispanic politician to endorse her candidacy in recent weeks. Late last month, she secured the backing of the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, who had been courted by several Democratic candidates.

The New York senator had earlier won the endorsement of New Jersey's Governor Corzine.

Finally yesterday, Mrs. Clinton's campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, sent out a fund-raising appeal via e-mail aimed at using Republican attacks on Mrs. Clinton to rally support and generate cash.

"Fairness. It drives the Republicans nuts," the e-mail began, explaining how some Republicans had responded to Mrs. Clinton's speech last month in New Hampshire calling for a new "progressive vision" for the country. In the address, Mrs. Clinton proposed letting President Bush's tax cuts for high earners expire and eliminating subsidies and tax breaks for corporations.

The e-mail quoted the Republican National Committee as calling Mrs. Clinton's plan a "left-wing agenda" that must be stopped. "The Republicans are already gunning for Hillary because they know she would be the most difficult candidate to beat," Ms. Solis Doyle wrote.

The letter highlighted a Clinton strategy both to use Republican criticism as a fund-raising tool and to project the confidence of experience in appealing to Democratic primary voters as the candidate most equipped to defeat the Republican Party. "After 20 years on the national stage, Hillary knows how they operate," Ms. Solis Doyle wrote. "She knows how to beat them. And she knows we must respond to attacks like these."

The appeal appeared to target middle-class supporters. The e-mail touted Mrs. Clinton's plan to "level the playing field" and asked for donations for $75, $50, $25, "or any amount you can afford."

As the end of the current filing period approaches, the rival campaigns in recent days have been jockeying to set expectations for the release of second-quarter figures next month. After raising more than $25 million in the first quarter, an Obama aide said yesterday that the campaign would be happy to raise $20 million for the second quarter.

The Clinton campaign has said publicly only that it expects to match its haul of $26 million in the first quarter, but an aide yesterday scoffed at the $20 million estimate by the Obama campaign, saying that donors had been told that the second-quarter goal was upward of $40 million.

Political analysts said that while it clearly would be beneficial to Mr. Obama to come out ahead in fund-raising, it would not hurt Mrs. Clinton's bid. "Obama has more to gain than Hillary has to lose," the acting dean of Boston University's College of Communication, Tobe Berkovitz, said. "If she's modestly out-raised, I don't think that's a sign necessarily of weakness."