http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/04/01/nyregion/hillary.184.jpg

Clinton Supporters Gear Up Against 'Swift Boat' Tactics
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

Published: April 1, 2005

WASHINGTON, March 31 - With 19 months to go before the elections and no
opponent in sight, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is
nonetheless warning her political supporters that she is the prime
target of "the right-wing attack machine."

In a fund-raising e-mail message sent out on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton's
campaign also said her critics were preparing an advertising campaign
against her similar to the one orchestrated by Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth, a group that attacked Senator John Kerry's Vietnam service during
the presidential election.

"The right wing is already getting ready, naming Hillary as their 'No. 1
target' and boasting about their 'Swift Boat' style ads," said the
e-mail message, which was sent by Ann F. Lewis, the director of
communications for Mrs. Clinton's campaign committee, Friends of
Hillary. "Help us show the right wing that we will be ready and able to
fight back."

In many respects, the fund-raising letter is a fairly standard piece of
campaign literature, employing the kind of scare tactics that Republican
and Democratic politicians routinely use to mobilize their supporters.

That said, the fund-raising solicitation exposes a side of Mrs. Clinton
- fiery partisan - that she has rarely displayed in the four years since
she arrived in the Senate, where she has won over many Republican
colleagues with a nonconfrontational and even cordial style.

In an interview, Ms. Lewis said the e-mail message was largely sent in
response to published reports that Republicans are creating a political
action committee seeking to raise $10 million to run a campaign against
Mrs. Clinton in 2006. The committee is reportedly going to model its
campaign after the one that the Swift Boat veterans used in 2004 to
attack Mr. Kerry's war record, Ms. Lewis said.

The Clinton e-mail solicitation - one of two sent this week - also
suggests that her formidable fund-raising apparatus is gearing up for
what her aides say could become a tough re-election season. To date,
Mrs. Clinton has amassed $5.5 million in her war chest, according to the
latest campaign disclosure statement.

Though Mrs. Clinton's popularity rating is high and New York Republican
leaders have yet to find a candidate to run against her, people close to
the senator say they expect Republicans around the country to pump money
into New York in an effort to defeat her. Indeed, some Republicans say
they believe that if they do not stop Mrs. Clinton in 2006, she will be
in a strong position to run for the presidency in 2008.

In the 2000 Senate campaign, Mrs. Clinton spent nearly $30 million. She
faced two Republican challengers: Rudolph W. Giuliani, who spent about
$20.7 million before dropping out, and Rick A. Lazio, a congressman from
Long Island who spent $40.6 million, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics.


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