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RealClearPolitics Politics Nation Blog

By Reid Wilson (AIM: PoliticsNation)

« More Races To Watch | Blog Home Page | Competitive In Colorado? »

Hillary Clinton: Lightning Rod

No one running for president inspires more vitriol on the right and loyalty on the left than does Hillary Clinton. We've alluded recently to the incredible number of outside groups that are spending on her behalf, and disclosures with the Federal Elections Commission show organizations both supporting and opposing her are pouring money into the race.

Within thirty days of an election, third-party groups that support and oppose a candidate are required to file reports of any independent expenditures within twenty four hours. A quick breakdown:

Groups supporting Clinton have spent at least $649,116 this week.

Groups opposing Clinton have spent at least $114,606 this week.

That's right, this week. And we say "at least" because reports for Thursday and today are not in yet. The biggest Clinton boosters are unions backing her campaign, including the American Federation of Teachers, which spent $310,000 on radio ads in New Hampshire between now and the January 8 primary, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has dropped more than $260,000 into two media buys in Iowa.

EMILY's List, which supports pro-choice Democratic women, is also spending significant resources on women voters in Iowa who might turn in to Clinton supporters. The group has launched an aggressive voter identification and turnout featuring mailings and web advertisements, both on political sites and non-political sites like BabyNames.com and Epicurious.com.

Clinton's opponents are coming at her from both the right and the left. The Life and Liberty PAC, a Washington, D.C.-based group dedicated to educating voters about Clinton and top Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani and their pro-choice records, dropped nearly $78,000 into a phone and mail campaign.

A group called Democratic Courage comes at Clinton from the left, attacking her for "allow[ing] herself to be bullied so much by Republicans that we don't have faith that she would stand up to them either in the general election or if she got into the White House," said the group's chairman, Glenn Hurowitz.

Hurowitz hinted that the group has more up its sleeve. "It's possible that we could focus on another candidate in the future," he said. While he wouldn't comment on which campaign they might target, in a post yesterday at Huffington Post Hurowitz suggests Barack Obama's approach to bringing people together is misguided.

For now, though, Clinton bears the brunt of outside attack ads and is benefiting the most from independent boosters. While third-party organizations will weigh in for and against other candidates -- a new pro-John Edwards group hit the Iowa airways today with a television ad on jobs, while Obama is benefiting from a group called Vote Hope based in California -- it is likely that no candidate will get more attention than Clinton, from both sides.