Clinton Seeks Low-Dollar Fundraisers

Not content with ceding the title of grassroots fundraising champion to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton's campaign is harvesting for thousands of new smaller donors.

This week, the campaign's direct mail team will ask tens of thousands of Clinton contributors across the country to find ten of their friends who can contribute $10 each to the campaign.

In a letter accompanying the fundraising appeal, Clinton campaign chair Terry McAuliffe says the "10 for 10 Program will showcase just how much support Hillary has across the country[.]

McAullife continues:

During the next stage of the campaign we need to not only continue to build our resources, but also engage and energize the broad base of supporters Hillary has across the country – and we need your help to do it.

The tiny sums involved suggest that the campaign wants to boost the numbers of contributors it can brag about. When Obama's campaign said it had recieved money from 258,000 donors through the end of June, Clinton's campaign was quick to point out that Obama occasionally charged entrance fees for large events, like a thousand person crowd in Minneapolis, and counted the proceeds of the sale of campaign paraphernalia as donations. But they were envious, too: advisers conceded that the breadth of Obama's support made it harder for Clinton to argue that her presidential bid was worth the investment of the party's grassroots.

Through the end of March, Clinton received money from approximately 60,000 contributors. Her tally through the end of June is not known.