Hillary sets campaign fundraising records (Roundup)

Apr 2, 2007, 5:31 GMT

Washington - US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign issued first-quarter fundraising reports that show she has collected record sums nearly a year before the first Democratic primary races, according to reports Monday.

The New York senator, re-elected in November to a second term, is seeking a return to the White House, where she spent eight years as first lady with her husband, Bill Clinton, president from 1993-2001.

Clinton was widely expected to lead presidential contenders in the centre-left Democratic Party in fundraising for the January-March period. Her war chest of 26 million dollars through the first quarter of the year was almost three times as much as any previous candidate at this stage in the election cycle, the Washington Post reported.

Al Gore, then-sitting vice president under Bill Clinton, collected 8.9 million dollars in January-March 1999 for the 2000 presidential race.

The first event to decide the major-party nominations is the Iowa caucus in January 2008, followed by major primary elections in at least half the states in February.

Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, announced that his campaign had collected 14 million dollars.

Among other Democrats, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson reported 6 million dollars, Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd collected 4 million dollars and Delaware Senator Joe Biden took in 3 million dollars, the Post reported.

US Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, consider the third top-tier Democratic contender with Hillary Clinton and Edwards, did not announce his first-quarter fundraising as of late Sunday.

None of the candidates for the presidential nomination of the centre-right Republican Party made immediate announcements of their first-quarter collections. Fundraising data must be reported by April 15 to the Federal Election Commission.

On Sunday, Tommy Thompson, former governor of the Midwestern state of Wisconsin and past member of US President George W Bush's cabinet, announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination.

Thompson, 65, was secretary of the Health and Human Services Department during Bush's first term from 2001-05. He announced his candidacy Sunday on ABC News, calling himself 'the reliable conservative.'

Thompson formed a presidential exploratory committee more than three months ago. He is not considered among the Republicans' top tier of candidates, which is led by former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Senator John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.