HRC campaign sale: Everything must go!

[ProSense]

HRC campaign sale: Everything must go!

By KENNETH P. VOGEL | 11/21/08 4:35 PM EST

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign is wrapping up a fire sale of sorts, in which it dispensed computers, servers, desks and most other office fixtures not bolted down to charities, campaign vendors, politicians and just regular folks — all in the name of raising cash to pay off its debt.

Until about three weeks ago, signs in the windows of Clinton’s suburban Washington campaign headquarters advertised a moving sale and offered all kinds of office equipment for purchase, and some equipment is still listed for sale online. From the time she conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama through the end of October, Clinton’s campaign reaped $373,000 through nearly 400 separate “asset sales,” according to reports her campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission.

That won’t put much of a dent in her vendor debt, which stood at $7.5 million at the end of October, according to an FEC report filed Thursday night.

But every penny counts for Clinton, who’s had a tough time raising cash since dropping out of the race. Thursday’s report shows that in October she raised $774,000 and brought in another $42,000 through asset sales, allowing her to pay down $507,000 of her vendor debt.

That debt could be an issue if, as expected, she is tapped to be Obama’s secretary of state, a position that would bar her raising cash to pay off her unpaid bills, possibly prompting her to appeal to her creditors and the FEC to forgive the debt.

It would be unprecedented for the FEC to allow a candidate to write off such a large debt. But it’s quite common for losing candidates to sell off their assets, particularly to their former staffers and sympathetic political committees.

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