HILLARY'S 'TROOP' BUILDUP
By IAN BISHOP Post Correspondent
March 27, 2006 -- PREZ-ENT ARMS!
WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won't say if she's running for the White House - but she's already drafted a presidential-size army of campaign staffers that dwarfs John McCain's outfit and those of everyone else in the field.
Clinton has assembled a Titanic-size troop of 37 staffers and a legion of pricey consultants on the rolls of her HillPAC political-action committee and her Friends of Hillary re-election campaign - operatives that come on top of the three dozen aides in her Senate office.
"I understand New York is a large state, but this is extraordinary. This operation is built for one thing and one thing only: She's running for president," said a senior Dem operative.
Twenty Clinton campaign staffers are paid by both HillPAC and Friends of Hillary, including her Senate chief of staff, Tamera Luzzatto, according to federal records. Six more campaign staffers are paid exclusively by Friends of Hillary, and another three receive a paycheck just from HillPAC.
In all, Clinton doles out nearly $100,000 a month on staff payroll, and devotes even more to a dozen seasoned consultants who handle media strategy, speechwriting, market research, direct mail and fund-raising. The payoff has been a $17 million war chest - the biggest in the Senate.
"Considering the successful work that is being carried out by the FOH and HillPAC staff, including our extensive outreach to low-dollar donors, we think it's an appropriate number at this time," campaign spokeswoman Ann Lewis told The Post.
But insiders say her army is overkill in her re-election race against former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer and former Reagan-era Pentagon official Kathleen "KT" McFarland - both way back in the polls.
Clinton's political machine is so massive that it's more than four times as big as 2008 GOP front-runner McCain, who relies on five staffers and a half-dozen consulting firms spread between his campaign and his Straight Talk America PAC.
And while Clinton this year has hoarded her HillPAC money to build her staff - making just one donation to the Oregon Democratic Party - other presidential wannabes, both Democrats and Republicans, have spread their campaign cash to build up a grass-roots network in key primary states.
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I hope she spends all 17 million on a loser campaign ala Kerry.
all I can hope is that we'll have a candidate that we can get behind...McLame runs and its hail to the Chieftess..
I'd love to see a miracle and New York vote her out of the Senate!!