Pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC gathering steam

The campaign has a flashy website and official logo T-shirts and signs. Prominent Democrats have endorsed it and written $25,000 checks. Its paid operatives and volunteers have set up shop in a suburban strip mall office that last housed the regional campaign headquarters for Sen. Timothy Kaine, D-Va.

All it needs now is a candidate.

The upstart super political action committee, called Ready for Hillary, is fast emerging as the quasiofficial stand-in for potential 2016 presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton, scooping up advisers and gathering big donations more than three years ahead of election time.

But the group is also making some advisers in Clinton’s orbit decidedly nervous about its potential impact on her own efforts, which for now consist of philanthropic pursuits and remaining mum on a presidential bid. Some allies also fear a repeat of 2008, when an assumed air of inevitability contributed to Clinton’s loss to fresh-faced challenger Barack Obama.

Super PACs and other independent groups, which rose to prominence in the 2012 campaign, can cause serious problems for candidates they aim to support by going off-message or muddying the landscape. Some donors are already confused by a proliferation of pro-Clinton groups, including at least three registered super PACs that feature Clinton in their name.

“It’s hard to even know what’s what anymore,” said John Morgan, an Orlando, Fla., lawyer who served on Bill Clinton’s 1996 national finance committee. “It’s become a cottage industry. It’s like, ‘Who are you?’ Just because you put the name Hillary at the end of your PAC - it could be a bait and switch. I want to make sure I can get the biggest bang formy buck.”

Ready for Hillary - launched in January by Clinton boosters Adam Parkhomenko and Allida Black - is getting help from a number of veterans from Hillary and Bill Clinton’s political operation. Former Bill Clinton strategist Harold Ickes, former Clinton White House political director Craig Smith and former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Jim Lamb are advising the group on strategy, while longtime confidant James Carville recently sent out a fundraising solicitation under his name.

“I look at this as an outpost that will help Hillary if she runs,” Ickes said.

“There are likely to be a number of Hillary super PACs popping up like mushrooms in the spring,” he added, but “this super PAC is the real deal.”

Super PACs are not allowed to coordinate their message or spending with any candidate or political party, and Ready for Hillary organizers say they have had no contact with Clinton or those in her immediate circle of advisers. The Clinton camp says the same.

“They are an independent entity acting on their own passion,” said Nick Merrill, a Clinton spokesman. “Their energy and enthusiasm to convince her to run is inspiring, though only she in the end can make that very personal decision.”

Leading the group’s fundraising efforts are former California U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher and Shelly Porges - both of whom worked for Clinton at the State Department - as well as Esprit co-founder Susie Tompkins Buell and Miami developer Christopher Korge, who served on her 2008 campaign finance committee. Former Clinton political adviser Ann Lewis and former Clinton White House chief of staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty say they have given money to the group, as well.

Also helping the superPAC raise money are Houston trial lawyers Steve and Amber Mostyn, who gave $3 million last year to Priorities USA, the main pro-Obama super PAC.

Several Clinton associates said they have received no indication from Clinton about whether she approves of the group.

“There are no winks; there are no nods,” Buell said.”We’ve all gotten a yellow light - we haven’t heard, ‘This is great, do it,’ and we haven’t heard, ‘This is not good, don’t do it.’ “

The main advantage super PACs have over campaigns is the ability to raise unlimited amounts of money. Ready for Hillary, with a paid staff of five, is aggressively seeking funds and will file its first donor disclosure reports in July. It says it has finance consultants working in five states and Washington.

But, in an unusual decision, the group says it is capping donations at $25,000 per person, which organizers believe gives it a grass-roots sheen. Parkhomenko said he has turned down donors who have asked to contribute more than $1 million.

Meanwhile, some top GOP operatives have begun a “Stop Hillary” movement through the new super PAC America Rising. The group aims to “define the real Hillary,” according to a fundraising solicitation sent Thursday by co-founder Matt Rhoades, who managed Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

“The Clinton Machine is extremely powerful, and we have seen it in action time and time again,” Rhoades wrote. “We need to stop it before it is too late.”

For now, at least, the machine is gearing up in a drab office near a nail salon and Chinese takeout restaurant outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Va. The windows are painted over, and the carpet is stained. A handful of volunteers sat around Ikea tables one afternoon this week stuffing envelopes with more than 30,000 Ready for Hillary bumper stickers - one for everyone who has signed up on the website.

Soon, Pakhomenko says, the group will sell goods online. One planned item he’s particularly enthusiastic about is a line of T-shirts: “Bill for First Gentleman,” “Bill for First Lady” and “Bill for First Lad.” Information for this article was contributed by Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 06/23/2013

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