Still, the lack of planning for after “Super Tuesday,” in which more than 20 states held caucuses or primaries Feb. 5, was a sign that the Clinton campaign wasn’t well-managed, several party strategists said. While it was widely assumed that the nomination essentially would be decided that day, it’s a campaign manager’s job to plan for every contingency.
It turned out that Clinton and Obama finished Super Tuesday in a virtual dead heat. Then the Clinton team found itself out-organized, out-funded and outspent in state after state. That set the stage for Obama’s crushing string of 12 straight primary and caucus victories, which nearly killed Clinton’s campaign.
How did Williams turn things around? She won’t say, declining to be interviewed for this story. “I really, honest to God, would like to just get up every morning, go to work and do my job,” Williams said in a voice-mail message responding to a request for an interview. “I’m not necessarily interested in talking about changes that I’ve made . … I can’t really say what change has occurred. I just try to work and see how it shakes out . … I would rather work than talk about work.” …
To be sure, factors other than Williams taking the reins are helping Clinton. Her February fundraising was a vast improvement for a campaign that was nearly broke. That allowed her to compete in key primaries March 4, winning Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. Obama’s limited appeal to Latino and white working-class voters meant that those three states were tailor-made for Clinton. Then, too, as Obama emerged as the front-runner, he began to face more scrutiny over his relationship with his indicted Chicago fundraiser Antoin Rezko and his two-decade affiliation with controversial minister Jeremiah Wright’s church in Chicago.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/244/v-print/story/31887.html
Tags: hillary, maggie williams, super tuesday, turnaround
March 30, 2008 at 6:55 pm |
Clinton campaign manager served on board of failed subprime lender
By Glenn Thrush, Newsday
9:21 AM CDT, March 30, 2008
WASHINGTON
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign manager, Maggie Williams, earned about $200,000 on the board of a Long Island subprime lender that charged prepayment penalties — a practice that Clinton, a critic of the subprime industry, now seeks to eliminate. Williams, who took over the reins of Clinton’s campaign in February, served as a director on the board of the Woodbury, N.Y.-based Delta Financial Corp. from April 2000 until the firm declared bankruptcy in December, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records. She was originally recruited by former New York City Deputy Mayor Bill Lynch, a Delta consultant. Her assignments were to create a new code of “best practices,” to improve Delta’s relationship with African-American customers, and to improve the company’s crisis management operation in the wake of state and federal predatory lending probes that resulted in a $12 million payout to borrowers.
Williams, 53, isn’t the only Clinton insider who made money from an industry the candidate has demonized. A month ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that Clinton ally and former HUD secretary Henry Cisneros grossed more than $5 million in stock sales and board compensation from Countrywide Financial, one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders.
Once a poster child for predatory practices, Delta’s reputation improved substantially until its recent travails, as executives eschewed adjustable-rate mortgages for more stable fixed-rate loans, which have fewer defaults. To boost revenue in the absence of high-profit adjustable loans, the company charged relatively steep interest rates — 11 percent in 2007 — and levied higher-than-prime-loan closing costs.
And Delta assessed prepayment penalties for borrowers who paid off before their loans matured — a practice Clinton frequently decries on the campaign trail.
“I would eliminate the prepayment penalties that lead to such high rates of default,” Clinton said in a March 24 speech at the University of Pennsylvania. “I would require lenders to take into account the borrower’s ability to pay property taxes and insurance fees when deciding whether to make a loan in the first place.”
Subprime loans come with higher interest rates and are offered to borrowers with poor credit. That lending took off during the housing boom and is one of the underlying causes of the current credit crisis.
Williams downplayed her role at the company, saying, through her assistant, that she served only in “an advisory/oversight capacity.” In a statement released through Clinton’s campaign, Delta senior vice president Marc Miller said Williams “did not have a role in the day-to-day operations and management.” Calls to Delta executives, board members and their bankruptcy lawyer weren’t returned. The company’s switchboard and Web site have been deactivated in the last few days.
Williams turned down repeated requests to be interviewed, although her assistant provided brief responses to several written questions by e-mail. Asked if she shared her experiences in the industry with Clinton, Williams’ assistant, Amee Patel, responded, “She generally does not discuss her business, board memberships or organizational affiliations with the Senator.” For her services on the board, Williams was paid around $30,000 per year plus expenses and granted at least 25,000 stock options, according to the SEC. Records show she was able to cash in some of the options, realizing a profit of about $15,000 during a temporary uptick in Delta’s stock price in July 2007. “She lost remaining options due to the company bankruptcy,” her assistant wrote in an e-mail.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-campaign-clinton-subprime-webmar30,1,3156434.story