Saturday, July 19, 2008

HRC Campaign Aides Buy 2012 Website

A company associated with Hillary Clinton's top presidential campaign advance staff has purchased a website domain that hints of a 2012 presidential bid for the vanquished senator from New York.

HRC2012.com was bought by the Markham Group on June 8, according to whois.com

Greg Hale of the Markham Group served as a key advance aide to Sen. Clinton, organizing political events for the campaign. The Markham website calls him the "lead consultant for advance and visual messaging." Partners Paul Neaville and Robert McClarty (the son of former White House chief of staff Thomas "Mack" McClarty) also worked on Clinton's advance team. According to whois.com, the site was registered by Todd Wilder, a longtime Democratic operative from Florida.

A picture of Clinton pops up when the company's website is called up.

Mo Elleithee, a Clinton spokesman, said that Clinton officially associates herself with three websites: hillpac.com, for her political action committee, hillaryclinton.com, for her presidential campaign and now her '12 Senate re-election campaign, and a separate site dedicated to retiring her presidential debt.

In 2006, HillaryClinton.com was used as the principle Senate re-election site, so it's not clear why a separate 2012 site would be required.

If Obama loses in November, Clinton would have to pick between running for re-election and running for president.

Clinton advisers say that she is committed to helping elect Obama and, at the same time, wants to keep her options open. But Elleithee said he knew nothing about the HRC2012.com site.

No comments: