Schedule shaping up for Sen. Clinton visit
Posted on Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Democratic elected officials in Arkansas will be able to mingle with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton next week at no charge, but others will pay up to $ 2, 300 for the chance to have lunch or drink cocktails with the state’s former first lady.
While Clinton’s presidential campaign has not officially released details of her visit to the state Monday, her Arkansas supporters confirmed that it will include at least three fund-raisers and a meeting with legislators and other officials at the Association of Arkansas Counties building at 1415 W. Third St. in Little Rock.
Mo Elleithee, a spokesman for Clinton’s campaign, said the details of the visit are being worked out. Asked if the New York Democrat will make any appearances that will be open to the public, he said in an e-mail, “All I can confirm at this point about the Senator’s visit, is that she will indeed be in the state on Monday.”
Attorney General Dustin Mc-Daniel, chairman of Clinton’s campaign in Arkansas, organized the meeting with elected officials, which will be at 4 p. m. Monday.
He invited all the Democratic members of the legislature, as well as the state’s constitutional officers and a few county officials and former legislators. “Virtually every member” of the legislature is expected to attend, he said. He said he wanted to encourage local officials to help with the campaign.
“This is a closed meeting — no pressure, no press, no endorsements, no money,” McDaniel said. “This is an opportunity that if they’re going to go back to their districts where they have to face Arkansas voters and talk about the presidential campaign, I’d like for them to be able to ask her questions and look at her faceto-face.”
Of the state’s Democratic congressional delegation, Sen. Mark Pryor and Reps. Vic Snyder, Mike Ross and Marion Berry have endorsed Clinton’s bid for the party’s presidential nomination. Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Gov. Mike Beebe have not yet endorsed a candidate.
Before visiting Little Rock, Clinton will attend a luncheon in Fayetteville at the home of Jim Hatfield and his wife, Suzie Stephens, at 705 N. Sunset Drive.
According to an invitation posted on the Clinton campaign Web site, tickets are $ 1, 000 for the noon luncheon and $ 2, 300 — the maximum contribution allowed for the primary campaign — for a “VIP Reception.” To minimize disruption in the neighborhood, a shuttle will pick up guests at the Malco Razorback 6 movie theater’s parking lot on College Avenue.
Hatfield said he and his wife, who owned a catering business for more than 25 years, have known Bill and Hillary Clinton since their Arkansas days, and Stephens catered several Arkansas events for the Clintons while Bill Clinton was president.
Sen. Clinton is “a brilliant woman, and I think the time is probably right to have a woman in the White House,” said Hatfield, a retired car dealer.
At 5 p. m., Sen. Clinton will attend a “Happy Hour” at the Little Rock Zoo’s Cafe Africa. A regular ticket is $ 100 or $ 150 per couple, and a VIP ticket is $ 500 per person.
To accommodate the event, the zoo will close at 3 p. m., two hours earlier than usual, zoo spokesman Susan Altrui said. She said the Clinton campaign is expecting 300 to 400 people for drinks and appetizers.
Next on the senator’s agenda is a $ 2, 300-per-person VIP reception at 7 p. m. at the home of Kaki Hockersmith and Max Mehlburger at 49 Edgehill Road in Little Rock, to be followed by a $ 1, 000-a-head cocktail reception at 7: 45. Hockersmith was the Clintons’ White House interior designer.
The visit comes less than two months after Sen. Clinton spoke to about 4, 000 supporters at the state Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock. Last week, former President Clinton spoke at an invitation-only event at his presidential library in Little Rock.
McDaniel said Sen. Clinton told him she is “committed to winning Arkansas.” “ She’s going to be back, and the president will be back, over and over again, ” McDaniel said. Hillary Clinton was first lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1980 and from 1983 to 1992. She was elected New York’s junior senator in 2000. On Tuesday, she was campaigning in Iowa, where her campaign began airing a television ad that accuses President Bush of being oblivious to the struggles faced by people without health care, single mothers and soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Americans from all walks of life across our country may be invisible to this President, but they’re not invisible to me,” Sen. Clinton says in the ad.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
