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Exclusive: Democratic donors urge Biden to challenge Clinton in U.S. 2016
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Exclusive: Democratic donors urge Biden to challenge Clinton in U.S. 2016
race

By Luciana Lopez and James Oliphant

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of prominent Democratic Party
fundraisers on Friday began circulating a letter to encourage a hesitant
Vice President Joe Biden to enter the 2016 race for U.S. president.

The letter, signed by nearly 50 people, calls the Obama-Biden
administration a "spectacular success." It cites job creation, a lower
unemployment rate, new health insurance policies for nearly 9 million
Americans and the end of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"To finish the job, America needs a leader who is respected both home and
abroad, and who understands the real challenges facing American families.
In our opinion, the next president must be Joe Biden. If he announces he’s
running, we’re all in. It’s a campaign we know he will win," the letter
says.

The signers are donors, Democratic activists and friends of Biden who have
yet to throw their full support behind Hillary Clinton, the presumptive
front-runner for the Democratic nomination to the November 2016 election.
Their call is the most provocative yet for Biden to take her on and
suggests a broad network backing the vice president is beginning to take
shape.

The letter makes no mention of Clinton.

John Maa, a member of the Democratic National Committee’s national finance
committee who is among the signers, said he was contacted this week by
another finance committee member to see if he would support Biden
financially.

Maa replied he would be happy to raise funds for Biden but that donors were
becoming impatient. “Time is precious,” Maa said.

“I know many people who will gladly contribute, and I will absolutely try
to organize,” he said.

The letter's significance goes beyond a simple declaration of support. It
appears aimed at pressuring Biden to decide soon. "We are ready if he’s
ready," they write.

Jon Cooper, the finance chairman of Draft Biden, a political action
committee formed to advocate for Biden's entry into the race, said Biden
has further support.

"For everyone who signed that letter, there are at least one or two more
ready to commit to him the moment he says he's running," said Cooper, a
Long Island, New York, businessman who raised funds for President Barack
Obama's reelection campaign in 2012.

The fundraisers who initiated the letter consulted Draft Biden in preparing
their appeal. Cooper said the effort gained momentum after Biden's
emotional interview with talk show host Stephen Colbert last week. "That
really galvanized folks around the country," he said.

Biden has sent conflicting signals about his intentions. His public
accounts of his despair in the wake of his son Beau’s death this year have
made him sound hesitant about joining the race.

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At the same time, he has met with Democratic luminaries such as Senator
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and key party donors. He has also
embarked on a travel schedule as vice president that this week takes him to
California, Michigan and Ohio, states that could be decisive in the
election.

The vice president's office said it would not comment on the letter.

A similar effort by liberal Democrats to encourage Warren to take on
Clinton for the party's nomination failed earlier this year. After coming
under increasing pressure to run, Warren said she would not seek the
presidency in 2016.

WORRIES ABOUT CLINTON

Biden has been huddling with advisers, trying to determine whether he can
mount a credible bid in the face of Clinton’s financial and organizational
advantages.

That process will continue, independent of any movement to draft Biden, a
source close to the vice president told Reuters.

Clinton, 67, a former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady,
announced her candidacy in April.

Her front-runner status has taken a beating over her use of a private email
server while she was Obama's secretary of state. She has seen her support
in polls tumble, creating a potential opening for Biden, 72, a former U.S.
senator who became vice president when Obama became president in January
2009.

While praising Clinton's public service, Joseph Asher, another signer of
the letter, said he favors Biden.

"Obviously, the race may be shaping up not as some people have expected and
obviously Secretary Clinton has had some real issues with her campaign,"
said Asher, chief executive officer of William Hill US, a betting and
gaming company in Las Vegas. "But you know I’m not a supporter of Joe Biden
because I’m anything other than thinking that he’s the guy, the best person
for the job."

Mary Lyndon Haviland, a global health consultant from Lyme, Connecticut,
called Clinton an "amazing leader" but said she doesn't connect with
"everyday" Americans.

"Right now, I remain concerned that even some of her greatest supporters
find it hard to find enthusiasm for the election," Haviland said.

The Draft Biden political action committee was established independently of
Biden’s team of advisers to lay the groundwork for a Biden run in the early
voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. It has hired
operatives in all three states.

Even if that organization were to give Biden a leg up in mounting a bid, he
would still face considerable obstacles in building a national organization
that can compete with Clinton, whose campaign and fund-raising Super PAC
have already built formidable war chests.

The letter offers some insight into how a Biden campaign might make its
appeal to voters, arguing that a Biden run would provide continuity with
Obama’s administration, serving as an unofficial Obama third term.

In a five-day rolling Reuters/Ipsos poll ending on Sept. 15, 46 percent of
respondents favored Clinton for the Democratic nomination, versus 27
percent for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Biden received 16 percent
despite not being a declared candidate. The poll had a credibility interval
of 4.7 percent.

For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, “Tales from
the Trail” (here <http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/>).

(Reporting by Luciana Lopez and James Oliphant; Additional reporting by
Erin McPike, Caren Bohan, Emily Flitter and Alina Selyukh; Editing by Ross
Colvin, Howard Goller and Leslie Adler)


Eric D. Schwerin
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com

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