Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton’s top fundraisers in New Jersey want Barack Obama to John F.X. Grahamoffer their vanquished candidate the vice-presidency in a show of respect to her and her 18 million supporters.

"If I don’t see the respect for Hillary Clinton, I will vote for him, but will I be a proactive person? No," said John Graham, national co-chair of fund-raising for the Clinton campaign and one of the money men in that small and powerful circle of Clinton fundraisers in New Jersey known as "The Group."

"Respect is offering her the position with her right of taking it or not taking it," Graham explained. "He can win without her, but Hillary in the picture gives him Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida."

Emerging from the shadow cast by John Kerry’s 2004 presidential loss and after vetting a number of the 2008 hopefuls, The Group came together with the express purpose of raising enough money to get Clinton elected president.

On the flight to Puerto Rico, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) turned to former President Bill Clinton and told him one of the reasons his wife was losing was because the campaign too often allowed Sen. Barack Obama to frame the issues.

When Clinton ran in the 1990s, he stayed on message - most famously with his "it’s the economy, stupid" rundown of the first President Bush. He won, Menendez observed, because Clinton forced his opponent to respond to the issues on his terms.

A flummoxed Bush was left marveling at supermarket product scanning devices while Clinton told voters, "I feel your pain."

Sixteen years later, his wife didn’t capture the issues and present them aggressively enough, in Menendez’s view, and she suffered the consequences.

Now, as he shifts gears from Clinton to Obama, Menendez is on the offensive, trying to frame the immigration and ethics debates against Sen. John McCain, a day before the presumptive Republican presidential nominee lands in New Jersey for a Burlington County campaign rally.

John McCain and BarackObama at a Senate hearing in 2006: Getty Images PhotoDemocrat Barack Obama has a six point lead over Republican John McCain in New Jersey, 45%-39%, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning. In a February 21 Quinnipiac poll, Obama led McCain 46%-39%.

“Sen. Barack Obama shows every sign of keeping New Jersey in the blue state column in the presidential election, rolling up the kinds of numbers that routinely elect Democrats year after year,” said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Almost a majority says the economy is the most important issue in the campaign; President Bush’s approval rating is near his all time low; only 29 percent support the war in Iraq – all bad news for Sen. John McCain who enters the state with Republicans already the registration underdogs.”

In the final days of her candidacy, Hillary Clinton tried to make the argument that her candidacy had a better shot of patching together the 270 electoral votes needed to win the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue than her opponent Barack Obama. 

Despite the fact that Real Clear Politics reported Clinton leading in the popular vote and she won 6 of the last 9 primary contests, the press gave little credence to her proposition, including our own media outlets.

Getty Images Photo
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) greets Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) before speaking at the National Building Museum June 7, 2008 in Washington, DC. Clinton thanked her supporters for standing behind her in one of the longest Democratic primary season in history and urged them to back Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to be the next president of the United States.

Governor Jon Corzine said he is "absolutely" behind Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

As the Hillary Clinton crowd decompresses after their champion ranU.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8) up the white flag this week in her presidential bid, talk inevitably turned to vice-president.

And inevitably turned to Clinton.

"She has to be considered," said Clinton supporter U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8). "We can’t just dismiss 18 million voters because the pundits say she can’t do it."

One of a number of other congressmen this week who advised Clinton to pull the plug on her campaign based on the numbers that add up in favor of Sen. Barack Obama, Pascrell said Clinton told him and others she doesn’t intend to campaign for the job.

But she’s still Pascrell’s first choice, and the first choice of Pascrell’s congressional colleague, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6).

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John F.X. Graham, the Co-Chairman of Hillary Clinton’s New Jersey campaign, has sent out an email asking supporters to not to switch their support to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama.  Clinton is widely expected to announce the end of her campaign on Saturday.

Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg with Passaic County Chair John Currie (file photo) 

NEWARK - Gov. Jon Corzine said the incumbent's demonstration of effectiveness in his successful U.S. Senate Primary contest finally distinguished U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).

"There was a lot of tactical stuff in this race, but in reality Frank Lautenberg has shown repeatedly that he is very effective," Corzine told PolitickerNJ.com.