October 16, 2009
Posted: October 16th, 2009 09:19 AM ET

From
Castle will make a run for Senate.
Castle will make a run for Senate.

WASHINGTON (CNN) –  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign debt from her failed 2008 presidential bid has fallen below the $1 million-mark for the first time since she launched her candidacy almost three years ago, according to documents filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission.

Clinton's campaign reported having $2 million in the bank as of September 30, more than enough to pay off the $995,500 it carried in unpaid bills.

The sole remaining creditor is the political consulting firm Penn, Schoen & Berland, which at the start of the year had been owed $5.4 million. The campaign paid the firm over $500,000 on September 30, the last day of the 3rd quarter reporting period.

Clinton's debt reached its peak in June 2008 shortly after the former New York senator suspended her campaign. At that point, her presidential committee owed $12 million to almost 500 creditors and $13.2 million to the candidate herself, who dipped into her personal funds to help finance her campaign. Campaign finance laws forced Clinton to forgive the amount she loaned her committee because she was not able to repay the funds by the required deadline.

The campaign raised only $9,300 in contributions from July through September but generated an additional $172,000 from both bank interest and from the rental of its campaign mailing lists to other organizations.

A federal law known as the "Hatch Act" prohibits Secretary Clinton and other federal government employees from personally soliciting or accepting political contributions. The law does allow others to raise funds on Clinton's behalf, without her direct involvement.

Filed under: Hillary Clinton


shouldabeen   October 16th, 2009 10:53 am ET

At least she knows how to pay her debts, not running up debts that the country (taxpayers) will never be able to pay off

Dominican mama 4 Obama   October 16th, 2009 10:51 am ET

Look, I like Hillary. The truth however is that if you went into debt while CAMPAIGNING for President.....

Randy, San Francisco   October 16th, 2009 10:48 am ET

Real campaign reform is needed to ensure honest and fair elections. Elections should not be for sale. Money is not the "milk" of politics, it is more of a poison.

BUTTACAVOLI   October 16th, 2009 10:43 am ET

yea we paid that bill for her.

JEAN - ATL   October 16th, 2009 10:41 am ET

CNN certainly spends a lot of time on the ticker talking about money raised, but very little talking about the last 8 years, and how this country got into this economic mess that this president is supposed to fix in less than a year. Americans should wake up and remember who put us here, and don't make the same mistakes of adding insult to injury with more greedy conservatives! Remember this, their trickle down theory doesn't work for the American people and the world!

Hilltop   October 16th, 2009 10:34 am ET

She couldn't even run her own campaign without it going into millions of dollars in debt....I don't know how she could have run the country...

I feel sorry for all those small mom-and-pop businesses around the country that were owed money by the Clinton campaign...

I don't feel sorry for Mark Penn, though.

Monrob   October 16th, 2009 10:09 am ET

I love you Hillary Clinton, please run again.

Hugo   October 16th, 2009 10:00 am ET

As much as I despise the Clinton's because of the Free Trade Agreements and their condescending deceit, please God forgive me for this, I would have rather had Hillary Clinton as President of the United States over our current In-debtor in Chief!

southerncousin   October 16th, 2009 9:59 am ET

This sounds awful fishy to me. A family that has lived on the government dole all of their lives is able to raise these massive amounts of money, only in Obamalalaland.

Tony   October 16th, 2009 9:52 am ET

I wonder what her FICO score is?

Jim   October 16th, 2009 9:51 am ET

It looks like all Hillary had to do to raise the money to cover her debt was call the president a lier.

Susan   October 16th, 2009 9:48 am ET

"Clinton's campaign reported having $2 million in the bank as of September 30, more than enough to pay off the $995,500 it carried in unpaid bills."

I majored in English, not math, but if they have $2 million in the bank and owe less than 1 million, don't they have an EXCESS of a million dollars? No wonder the government can't manage accounting...they can't even do basic math. I realize the headline is technically accurate, but couldn't they have said "Clinton's debt repaid?"

Right Leaning Independent   October 16th, 2009 9:47 am ET

She needs to yell "You Lie" at the next presidents speech and she can collect $4.4 million dollars in donations to pay off her debt and replenish her accounts!

Jeff   October 16th, 2009 9:43 am ET

LOL, why is this even reported?

mark   October 16th, 2009 9:39 am ET

This is definitely an obama bailout using taxpayer money

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