WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's fund-raising blitz moves so fast that sometimes the recipients of her political bounty don't even see her coming.
This was true for Chris Van Hollen, the Democratic state senator hoping to unseat Constance A. Morella, Montgomery County's eight-term Republican congresswoman. Clinton's strategists began planning a fund-raiser for Van Hollen so soon after he won his primary that he never even got the chance to ask for help.
"I called her office shortly after the primary and they already had reserved a place on their calendar," said Van Hollen of the New York senator, who promoted his candidacy and enriched his campaign war chest at a fund-raiser in Chevy Chase last night.
Few politicians are as busy raising campaign funds as the former first lady, who has been crisscrossing the country to help Democratic candidates in next month's election, in which control of both houses of Congress is at stake.
The hard work is not entirely selfless. Clinton's activities enhance the stature of those she helps - as well as her own. At the least, she is working to preserve her influence in the Congress, since Democrats can achieve more when their party holds a majority.
National ambitions
Beyond that, Clinton's investment in the success of fellow Democrats, who include candidates in state elections as well as congressional races, could further her presumed national ambitions as, inevitably, her efforts fuel speculation that she will run for president one day.
"That's what it's all about - getting Hillary to the White House," said Bonnie Garrett, a retired economist from Bethesda who cheered Clinton at last night's Van Hollen fund-raiser. "If not Hillary, what other woman?"
Clinton's fund-raising efforts for candidates in two critical presidential testing grounds - Iowa and New Hampshire - have only added to the buzz that she might launch a presidential bid in 2008. Her political action committee, HILLPAC, which retains some savvy advisers with experience in presidential politics, enables Clinton to maintain a national political apparatus in waiting. All the campaign networking, meanwhile, adds powerful contacts to Clinton's Rolodex.
"Hillary Clinton's national activities create relationships that are necessary to get things done, and they increase the potential that she'd have a national base to run on," said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist. "She's developing relationships among Democrats that are hers and hers alone - they're not her husband's. That's smart politics."
By appearing at fund-raisers as often as four times a week, opening the home she and her husband own in Washington for dozens of events, and giving $599,000 to date to candidates around the country through HILLPAC, Clinton is forging alliances and banking chits that leave many Democrats in her debt.
During most of her first two years in office, Clinton has tried to blend into the Senate ranks, winning over even some detractors who had said that she would upstage her colleagues. But that low profile has disappeared during this campaign season, when she began raising money for fellow Democrats in a style that reflects her national following.
"She's one of the outstanding leaders of this party," said Al From, who heads the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. "She's got a national fund-raising base, she's a senator from one of the country's biggest states, she's a former first lady, she has something to say and she has a lot of support, so she's going to raise a lot of money."
Last night's event at the Woman's Club of Chevy Chase used Clinton's star power to draw roughly 350 donors, raising more than $100,000 for Van Hollen's bid. Donors sipped wine and buzzed about Clinton, who marched directly onto the stage to speak - mingling only with those Marylanders who attended a $1,000-a-person VIP reception beforehand.
"I do think it takes a village to elect a great congressman, and that's what's going to happen," Clinton told the gathering.
Her pitch was national in tone as she railed against the "extremist agenda" that she said the Republicans would pursue if they gain control of both houses of Congress.
Money for Townsend
The senator will surface in Maryland again on Oct. 16, playing host at a 900-person pep rally at a Bethesda hotel, an attempt to turn out the women's vote for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Clinton's husband, Bill, the former president, will headline a fund-raiser for the lieutenant governor two days later.
Though Clinton's advisers say she has to turn down more fund-raising invitations than she can accept, some Democrats are struck by Clinton's enthusiasm about her grueling schedule.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat, casually asked Clinton last month if she could lend a hand in the Maryland governor's race.
"She was very excited," Cummings said. "Next thing you know, it was done."
In recent weeks, Clinton has gone to Connecticut for gubernatorial contender Bill Curry, to Maine for Senate candidate Chellie Pingree, to Rhode Island for incumbent Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy and Illinois for gubernatorial hopeful Rod R. Blagojevich.
This week alone, Clinton is scheduled to attend a benefit for the Democratic Governors Association, a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fund-raising dinner and campaign for Oregon Senate candidate Bill Bradbury. By the weekend, she will put her connections to work in Los Angeles, where she will raise money for Jean Carnahan of Missouri, who is running to retain her Senate seat.
The Clinton touch
An invitation to Clinton's stately Northwest Washington home, which sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, is a big-ticket item to the party faithful. Last month the Democratic Leadership Council rewarded its members with "Behind the Doors of Washington," a series of house parties that included a private reception at the Clintons' digs.
The senator will conduct a fund-raiser for the senatorial campaign committee at her house next week. She also will raise money at her home for Jennifer Granholm, the challenger in the Michigan governor's race, as well as for New York gubernatorial hopeful H. Carl McCall.
HILLPAC also has been busy. Among political action committees run by Democratic Party leaders, only the PAC headed by California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House minority whip, has given more money this year. HILLPAC gave the $10,000 limit to every Senate Democrat up for re-election and contributed generously to candidates in close House races.
The PAC has raised more than $2.4 million since it was created in January 2001. Most of that money has gone to pay for salaries, fund-raising mailings and other overhead costs. About a quarter of the remaining funds has gone to help more than 75 candidates, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Harold Ickes, a former aide to President Clinton who helped orchestrate the former first lady's successful 2000 Senate campaign, is the PAC's chairman and advises Clinton on her fund-raising efforts. Other consultants include media strategist Mandy Grunwald and pollster Mark Penn, who worked on the 1992 and 1996 Clinton presidential campaigns, respectively.
But Clinton is not always an asset to fellow Democrats. Conservative fund-raisers frequently use her as a foil, and say a reliable campaign tool is one that capitalizes on hostility toward her. A television ad run by the Montana Republican Party, for example, links Clinton with Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat up for re-election this year.
"When President Bush needs Max Baucus' votes, Baucus votes with New York's Senator Hillary Clinton," the ad says, picturing the two side by side like sweethearts. "Call Max Baucus. Tell him New York already has two senators."