Hillary Rodham Clinton attends the Cookstoves Future Summit on Nov. 21 in New York City.(Photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images)
Ready For Hillary is really ready.
The group supporting a potential presidential run by Hillary Rodham Clinton is ready to fold up shop and hand over its list of supporters to the Clinton campaign – if only Clinton will give the word.
The group, founded in 2013, uses low-dollar fundraisers, e-mail, direct mail and a "Hillary Bus" driving around the country to build a list of supporters for a Clinton candidacy. It has raised $10 million, most of which went to online advertising, and amassed contact information from 3 million people.
"When she makes the decision or announces the decision, we begin to shut down; 98% of our operations will shut down very quickly,'' the group's founder, Adam Parkhomenko, said Friday.
Ready for Hillary's list of supporters will be rented or sold to the Clinton campaign, adviser Harold Ickes, a longtime Clinton strategist, said. Alternatively, Ready for Hillary will send e-mails asking for donations to go directly to the Clinton campaign, which essentially provides the campaign with donor information for free.
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The list alone would be a big advantage for a presidential campaign to have on Day One, but the infrastructure assembling to support Clinton goes beyond Ready for Hillary.
Parkhomenko spoke in New York at a meeting of the group's national finance council that included speakers from the full panoply of political groups gearing up for a Clinton campaign, if one occurs: the political action committee Priorities USA, which is raising money to spend on Clinton's behalf; EMILY's List, which supports Democratic women candidates; 270 Strategies, a voter targeting firm founded by Obama campaign alumni; and American Bridge, a political action committee that rebuts GOP attacks on Clinton.
It was a show of force for a campaign that does not officially exist. All the speakers were careful to discuss Clinton's candidacy as a possibility, not a fact, since neither she nor any other candidate has formally announced a run. (Former Virginia senator Jim Webb has announced an exploratory committee.) Mitch Stewart, an Obama campaign alumnus and founder of 270 Strategies, referred to Clinton as "my specific hypothetical candidate.''
Clinton has said she will make a decision in 2015. All the speakers at the Ready for Hillary meeting were careful to add "if there is a campaign.''
Even as they stressed that there is no Clinton campaign, the dozens of political operatives already working to make her president said her nomination by the Democratic Party is not inevitable.
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"Inevitability is not a message, it's not something you can run on,'' said Terry Shumaker, a longtime Clinton supporter from New Hampshire.
"We learned in 2008 she's not inevitable,'' Parkhomenko said. "A woman's never won the Iowa caucuses, a woman has never been a major-party nominee, a woman has never been elected president, and Hillary Clinton hasn't made up her mind.''
Though Clinton has been coy about her intentions, she has maintained a high profile: going on a book tour, giving speeches and speaking up on policy issues, including a comment Thursday endorsing President Obama's immigration executive order. In short, she acts like a candidate.
"A lot of people are taking their signals from that,'' said Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant. "Everyone's assumption is that there's a tremendous seriousness of purpose by her in terms of approaching a 2016 race.''
Since there is no candidate, there is no campaign message. "Hillary Clinton will determine the message,'' said Buffy Wicks, executive director of Priorities USA Action.
In the wake of this month's drubbing in midterm elections, there is considerable angst among Democrats that their party doesn't have a compelling message on the economy.
"We have not yet figured out a message on the economy that resonates with working-class voters,'' Stewart said. "For me, that's the biggest concern out there.''
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