AP: Hillary Clinton plants trees, reaps cash
By CAROLYN THOMPSON
June 18, 2007
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Sen. Hillary Clinton visited western New York on Monday with trees on her mind _ planting some and shaking others to help finance her presidential campaign.
The New York Democrat started the day in candidate mode at a $500-a-plate fundraising breakfast at Kleinhan's Music Hall as new poll results showed her with a double-digit lead over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
Moving on to Senate duties, Clinton visited a school with Mayor Byron Brown, where she distributed seed packets from a white ash tree from Eleanor Roosevelt's Hyde Park estate and grabbed a shovel to help plant two seedlings.
The planting ceremony gave Clinton a chance to help Buffalo replace trees lost in a surprise October snowstorm while promoting her broader energy and environmental policy.
In a similar two-for-one later, Clinton met with officials in Rochester about that city's crime rate while addressing national anti-violence initiatives.
In that way, Clinton said, she sees her presidential run as a positive for New York.
"There's a linkage between everything I do in and for New York and what I'm trying to do on the campaign trail and what I want to do as president," Clinton said at City Honors High School, where a lawn full of children awaited her arrival for more than an hour.
"You can talk about global warming right here in Buffalo while we're planting trees that are going to benefit the people of Buffalo, and I want to make those connections," she said.
The breakfast, and a Rochester fundraiser, were expected to raise $300,000, according to the campaign.
Nationally, Clinton was leading Obama in the Democratic race by 33 percent to 21 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month. A USA Today/Gallup Poll released on Monday showed almost identical results.
"I'm just doing this campaign one day at a time and I believe we're picking up support throughout the country," Clinton said of the results, "and what I've found is that the campaign itself brings people to a greater awareness of what I stand for, who I am, what kind of president I will be."
At the morning fundraiser, which was closed to the press, Clinton said her message was about setting goals for the country.
"I know we can have universal health care," she said. "I know we can have an independent secure energy source and combat global warming. We can make college affordable again, and so many other goals I know would be good for our country."
On the Republican side, the Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month had former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani with 27 percent, Arizona Sen. John McCain with 19 percent and Fred Thompson, an actor and former U.S. senator from Tennessee, with 17 percent. As in the Democratic race, the USA Today/Gallup Poll released Monday showed almost identical results.