Hillary bags $10m in race for presidencyBy Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 2:27am BST 27/03/2007
Hillary Clinton has set a fund-raising record for the primary stage of an American presidential race by collecting more than $10 million in a week.
The New York senator, who aims to be the first woman to sit in the White House, capped a remarkable seven days with a Hollywood soiree for 660 guests on Saturday that raised $2.6 million.
Staged at the home of the retail billionaire Ron Burkle, the event was a strong riposte to Barack Obama, her rival for the Democrat Party's nomination. Last month he raised $1.3 million at a Hollywood event hosted by the film producer David Geffen.
For Democrat candidates in particular it is crucial to win over mostly liberal Hollywood types and their substantial bank accounts.
The area has long been known as the cash machine of American politics.
Mr Obama stunned Mrs Clinton's campaign by attracting several major stars to his event, including Denzel Washington and Jennifer Aniston. The former first lady responded by gathering industry big hitters and studio executives, with Barbara Streisand, her actor husband James Brolin and Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel among the guests.
Earlier in the week, Mrs Clinton called on her husband Bill to be the headline attraction at fund-raising dinners which raised $2.6 million in Washington and $3.1 million in New York, with guests paying up to $2,300.
Both Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama have said they will need $100 million just to win the party's nomination for the presidential contest in November 2008.
George W Bush, who is standing down after the maximum two terms, spent $345 million on his 2004 campaign for the White House.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/27/wuspols27.xml...
For comparison:
"The previous record for raising ridiculous amounts of money — for the first three months of a campaign — was set in 2004 by John Edwards, when he led all Democrats with $US7.4 million."
