Hillary Clinton Coming to St. Louis to Help McCaskill?

Last week on the STL PD blog the Talent vs. McCaskill race was being discussed and fundraising came up. I put out the question, who from a national perspective could come in and help McCaskill raise cash. A few of the left leaning folks posted some names from the C list, and I responded that I thought Hillary Clinton might have an interest. They responded no way, the down side was much to high given the high negatives Clinton carries with some voters. They said McCaskills camp would not let Hillary Clinton anywhere near STL until after Nov 06'.

I thought that Clinton might have an interest since she would need to win states like Missouri to have a shot at winning in 2008, and this would give her an opportunity to get some early readings in Missouri. I also wondered if the McCaskill camp would take her up on the offer if it came, because although Hillary has the star power within the party, she also comes with some very heavy negatives. You need the cash but the price for the cash could be pretty large……………………….

Jo Mannies of the STL PD just put up a post (here) saying that Clinton is in fact scheduled to come to STL in March for fund raising:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — is planning to be in St. Louis next month for a fundraiser. However, Democratic sources say the March fundraiser will solely collect money for the senator’s re-election bid for the U.S. Senate in New York — not for any 2008 aspirations (or for any other Democrats on the November ballot.)………

Joyce Aboussie, long the most powerful behind-the-scenes Democrat in Missouri, is putting the event together. The time, date and place for HRC’s event has yet to be determined…………….

They maybe saying that Hillary is coming to STL for the sole purpose of raising cash for her campaign, but I’m not buying that for a moment. She is here to start testing the water and getting a read on how she is going to play in 2008 for sure. Also, there is very little chance that Aboussie is not locked in with the McCaskill camp on the visit and McCaskill's camp was in agreement. It very well could be that the state Dem party is testing the water to see if Hillary can help McCaskill raise cash without hurting her poll numbers and trying to do it without connectiong the two prior to the early readings…………………………..

I think this will be an interesting element of the Talent vs. McCaskill race to watch. Talent can bring in the biggest of the big national Republicans to help his campaign. It will be interesting to see who McCaskill will be able to bring in to assist her campaign……………………………………….