The Political Chase

McClatchy: ‘Group pushing Clinton as VP choice tied to her campaign’

McClatchy has impeccable journalism standards and some of the best journalists in the business, all of which adds substantially to the credibility of this piece on the force behind the Hillary for VP movement. 

A group called VoteBoth has been leading the charge for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to team up on the Democratic ticket.

But the people behind it come from just one of those camps — Clinton’s — and one of their goals may be keeping Clinton’s White House prospects alive.

The group’s founder, Adam Parkhomenko, until recently worked as an assistant to Patti Solis Doyle, who was Clinton’s campaign manager until February. Parkhomenko in 2003 founded the Draft Hillary for President Committee.

VoteBoth’s spokesman is Sam Arora. He’s a law school student who in recent years worked for Clinton and for former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman.

VoteBoth’s Facebook page lists three others as administrators, all with Clinton connections.

One is a Richmond-based Democratic technology consultant, who was quoted in a New York Times story about the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2006 Jefferson-Jackson dinner, where he was passing out "Hillary for President" stickers. Another appears online in a photo with Hillary Clinton and others at a summer leadership program from 2006.

A third is a history professor and campaign contributor whom Clinton named earlier this year in a press release of prominent Virginians who’d endorsed her.

VoteBoth first filed with the Federal Election Commission on April 8, two weeks before the Pennsylvania primary that Clinton won and that was considered a crucial window for her comeback. The group’s original mission promoted the idea of Clinton as the nominee, with Obama as her running mate.

On May 1, days after the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s latest divisive remarks and Obama’s renouncement of his former pastor, VoteBoth amended its mission. It now would support a joint ticket in either order, so long as Clinton’s name was on the ballot.

Last week, as Obama’s strong showing made him all but certain to clinch the nomination, VoteBoth leaders began putting themselves in the spotlight, sending regular press releases, posting blogs and appearing in interviews.