Not many candidates can draw more than 10,000 people into the Bay Area’s streets for a campaign rally, but two did so eight years ago — one of them is now president, and the other is running to succeed him.
As Hillary Clinton officially begins her quest for the White House by courting voters this week in Iowa, her campaign will feel a westward tug toward the money, technology and brainpower in the Bay Area. For months, Clinton supporters have been holding fundraisers and scouting Silicon Valley talent.
Days before Sunday’s announcement that she was running for president, Clinton hired Stephanie Hannon, Google’s director of product management for civic innovation and social impact, as her campaign’s chief technology officer — probably the first of many local hires, if the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns are any measure.
She has tried to win Silicon Valley’s respect by not just “treating it like an ATM,” said former U.S. Ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich, who co-hosted a Berkeley fundraiser last month for the “Ready for Hillary” PAC that laid the groundwork for her campaign. “She’s going to be drawing heavily on the tech community not just for campaign purposes but for problem-solving” in office.
Clinton seems smarter about using technology to make a more concerted play for the young and minority voters who can swing presidential elections, said Melinda Jackson, a San Jose State University associate professor and political expert.
“In 2008, she was the establishment candidate and Obama was the startup,” Jackson said. “But I think she has learned a couple of things from the last two election cycles.”
Clinton’s Bay Area history goes way back: The first apartment she ever shared with then-boyfriend Bill was in Berkeley, while she interned at Oakland’s Treuhaft law firm in the summer of 1971.
But as a politician, she seems to have a better lock on the region than ever. Eight years ago, the Field Poll found 35 percent of the region’s Democratic primary likely voters supported Clinton, to Barack Obama’s 30 percent and John Edwards’ 17 percent. Two months ago, the poll found 59 percent support her, compared to 24 percent for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and 7 percent for Vice President Joe Biden — neither of whom seems to be running.
Moneywise, 18 percent of Clinton’s 2007-08 contributions — $23.4 million — came from California, including $4.76 million from San Francisco, $1.92 million from San Jose and $1.72 million from Oakland, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Without serious Democratic competition, she could raise much more here this time around. Big-ticket donors like Salesforce.com chairman and CEO Marc Benioff (the only tech exec among the 35 national co-chairs of Obama’s 2012 campaign) and tech investor Sandy Robertson — both of whom have hosted Obama for exclusive fundraisers in their San Francisco homes — have been all-in for Clinton since late 2013.
Already the Bay Area has seen a spate of fundraisers for the “Ready for Hillary” PAC. Last month’s event in San Jose was hosted by Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose; Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez; county Assessor Larry Stone; and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. And a Berkeley event’s hosts included Bleich and strategist Christine Pelosi, daughter of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
“She’s got tremendous support here,” said Bleich, of Piedmont. “The real frustration is about gridlock in D.C., so I think people are looking for a steady hand who’s been through these battles and knows how to get a deal done.”
Even some who disagree with her politics have come to respect her experience and ability, he added. “Her reputation and stature have only grown with her service as secretary of state.”
Six American presidents had prior experience both as members of Congress and as cabinet secretaries; the most recent one, James Buchanan, left office in 1861. Then again, Buchanan is widely panned for letting the nation slide into the Civil War; as divisive a figure as Clinton might be, she’ll never top that.
Her liabilities here are few. Conservatives’ attacks on Clinton haven’t held much water in the Bay Area, from the 2012 attack and killings at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya — in which even the most partisan congressional probes failed to prove she was directly at fault — to the recent flap over her use of personal email while secretary of state.
Her vague stand on government surveillance could cause concern in Silicon Valley boardrooms and among the greater Bay Area’s activists. Speaking in Santa Clara in February, Clinton said she would seek a “better balance” between security and privacy in which the National Security Agency acts lawfully and more transparently but aggressively nonetheless. Yet no Democrat has taken more heat on that than Obama, and his approval rating stands at 67 percent in the Bay Area, the Public Policy Institute of California found last month.
Some Bay Area liberals are veering further left toward Warren or socialist U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. But Jackson thinks those critics mostly will lower their voices once conservatives start attacking Clinton in earnest on the campaign trail.
“She’s already got enough enemies out there,” Jackson said, and most progressives ultimately would rather see a female Democrat than any of the potential GOP contenders.
Kath Delaney, of Kensington, was at Hillary Clinton’s 2007 Oakland rally and was a Clinton delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention; last month she co-hosted the Ready for Hillary fundraiser in Berkeley, and she was on a campaign conference call Sunday night with longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin. As Fleetwood Mac memorably sang at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inaugural ball, “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow. … Yesterday’s gone.”
“What matters is the moment now, and in this moment she is the most qualified candidate with the most experience,” Delaney said. “I believed she was ready then, and I believe she’s really ready now.”
Josh Richman covers politics. Follow him at Twitter.com/Josh_Richman. Read the Political Blotter at IBAbuzz.com/politics.
