Clinton senior staff going without pay

Some of the top staffers on Hillary Clinton's campaign are -- voluntarily, they say -- working for free this month.

Published February 7, 2008 2:16PM (EST)

With Hillary Clinton falling behind in the fundraising race, people at the top levels of the campaign, including the candidate herself, are making sacrifices. Clinton has lent her campaign $5 million of her own money, and some senior staff have agreed -- voluntarily, they say -- to work without pay this month.

Clinton spokespeople did not return requests for comment from Salon Wednesday night, but they did confirm early reports of the money-saving measure to ABC News' Political Radar blog; campaign communications director Howard Wolfson said the staffers had acted in "a show of solidarity with Hillary Clinton." Campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle has said she was not asked to take any pay cut, but offered to work for free.

There is some good news on the financial side for the Clinton campaign -- according to Marc Ambinder, the campaign raised $4 million in 24 hours. That still left it behind Barack Obama's campaign for the period; Obama raised just under $6 million.

Update: During a conference call with reporters today, Maria Echaveste, a senior advisor to the campaign, said that Clinton staff is "not foregoing salaries." Separately, Time's Mark Halperin has a new post on his blog saying, "After Black Wednesday, Clinton raise[d] more than $6 million on the web in 24 hours -- campaign manager Solis Doyle and all staff being paid again."


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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