First lady sets up bank account

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jun 15, 1999 by MARC HUMBERT

The Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton is setting up a New York bank account to handle the early contributions that supporters are sending in for the Senate race she is considering.

Harold Ickes, a former White House deputy chief of staff who is advising Hillary Clinton on her Senate effort, said Monday he wasn't certain how much money had arrived but an account would be established early this week to take care of it. "It's really dribs and drabs, an inconsequential little amount of money," Ickes said, adding that checks didn't begin arriving until last week. "She hasn't done anything in terms of making fund-raising calls yet." Ickes said he expected Hillary Clinton to begin those calls in early July, shortly after she creates her Senate exploratory committee. Terence McAuliffe, President Clinton's chief fund-raiser in 1996, will head the first lady's money-raising effort, he said. Estimates on the size of the bankroll needed to be competitive in next year's Senate race for the seat being vacated by Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan are in the range of $15 million to $20 million. The race is being eyed on the Republican side by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, among others. One New York political expert said fund raising will be the least of Hillary Clinton's worries. "The Clintons have used New York as sort of their own personal bank ever since he's been president," said Maurice Carroll, head of the Hamden, Conn.-based Quinnipiac College Polling Institute. "She'll get all the dough she wants."