Obama Camp to Woo Clinton Fundraisers

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, is poised to recruit some top fundraisers used by his rival, Hillary Clinton, observers say.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that capturing Clinton’s former fundraisers could mean a huge cash infusion for Obama.

Analysts say they could bring up to $75 million into Obama’s coffers.

If Clinton exits the race, the Obama camp will invite her top fundraisers to join their national finance committee at a June 19 meeting in Chicago.

Obama, the Illinois senator, has already raised three times as much money as Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee.

With Clinton’s donors, Obama could lift his fundraising to $400 million to $500 million, the newspaper said.

Hassan Nemazee, a national finance co-chairman for the Clinton campaign, said if Obama captures the nomination, most of Clinton’s top 300-400 fundraisers would support him.

But the amount of money they could bring in would depend on how deeply the Obama campaign integrates the two operations and whether Clinton ended up on the ticket as the vice presidential candidate, he said.

It would be important how much Senator Obama and his top advisers in Chicago reached out to us, and how welcome our people felt, Nemazee said.