Clark replenishing political fund
Originally published by Arkansas News Bureau
Clark replenishing political fund
Tuesday, Aug 9, 2005
By Alison Vekshin
Stephens Washington Bureau
About 50 supporters of retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark are set to pay $1,000 apiece to have dinner with him on Thursday, an event to replenish the former presidential candidate's political action committee.
It is the first fund-raiser Clark will host this year to bolster WesPAC - Securing America's Future, a political action committee the Arkansan formed in April 2004 with the goal of electing Democrats to public office.
"General Clark provides the Democratic Party with a much-needed, credible voice on national security issues," Clark spokesman Erick Mullen said. "To make sure he is heard and is active in the campaigns of other Democrats, he needs to raise money."
The move also hints at someone preparing for a presidential run in 2008, said Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report, an independent newsletter analyzing U.S. politics and elections.
"This is part of a little dance potential presidential candidates do this far out," Rothenberg said. "They do this to ingratiate themselves with other Democrats and to make contacts.
"That's what Clark is doing," Rothenberg said. "It doesn't mean he's running. It's a sign he wants to stay relevant and could well run."
Mullen said Clark "is leaving all options on the table, but is not actively pursuing any sort of presidential aspirations at this point."
Thursday's event will begin with a cocktail reception at the Capitol Hill home of Rob Walker of Fayetteville, a former staffer on Clark's 2004 campaign. Donations for the reception will start at $100.
The reception will be followed by a dinner at The Caucus Room, located half way between the White House and the U.S. Capitol along Pennsylvania Avenue.
Clark will use the funds to travel on behalf of Democratic candidates, contribute to their campaigns, make media appearances and do e-mail solicitations, Mullen said.
"He'll be supporting Democrats up and down the ballot," said Mullen, adding that the committee is compiling a list of candidates to back.
The political action committee expects to hold a handful of fund-raisers before the end of the year, Mullen said.
Despite taking a private-sector job, Clark has remained in the public eye with television appearances, congressional testimony and Democratic Party events. He was the keynote speaker at the Manchester City Democratic Committee's annual dinner in New Hampshire in June, his first visit this year to the first-in-the-nation primary state.
"Wes Clark and his top aides are not going to announce he is running for president today," Rothenberg said. "What he is doing makes sense for an '08 presidential candidate."
WesPAC had $97,095 in cash on hand as of June 30, according to a mid-year report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
"We're going to take (fund raising) at a moderate pace," Mullen said. "General Clark is in the private sector and that takes up an overwhelming percentage of his time."
Clark is a vice chairman and senior adviser at Washington, D.C.-based James Lee Witt Associates. The crisis and emergency management consulting firm also employs Arkansans James Lee Witt, the firm's chairman and a former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Rodney Slater, vice chairman and senior advisor and a former transportation secretary in the Clinton administration.
Clark also runs a consulting firm Wesley K. Clark & Associates in Little Rock.
Clark, a retired four-star Army general and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential race. After losing in the primary, Clark campaigned for the Democratic ticket of Sen. John Kerry, of Massachusetts, and then-Sen. John Edwards, of North Carolina.
