Hillary in ABQ: One Hour Plus, 200 Dems, $150,000

Clinton cups her ear as reporters ask her about Mark Penn at Albuquerque's Sunport after her fundraiser (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

The price of admission to the fundraiser for Hillary Clinton Sunday afternoon at former Ambassador Ed Romero's home in Albuquerque was given as either $2300 (the maximum that can be donated by an individual to a candidate in the primary cycle), or $1000 for "friends." According to a story in the Albuquerque Journal, about 200 "elite Dems" (obviously NOT including Gov. Bill Richardson) attended the event, and more than $150,000 was reportedly raised for Clinton's campaign. That comes out to about $750 per attendee, nowhere near the suggested donation levels per person if the numbers are correct. If each donor gave even the lower suggested amount, the event should have raised $200,000. A number of attendees reportedly brought their children or grandchildren so maybe that accounts in part for the lower per person figure. The hosts, however, seemed pleased:

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, one of the co-hosts of the fundraiser, said $150,000 was an initial goal but added it appeared Sunday's total will be more than that. "We exceeded our goal," said Romero, who served as ambassador under Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton. "Everybody's happy with (the event), including the candidate."

According to the Journal story, Clinton was gung ho about her chances in the race:

"I want to tell you, the campaign is going so well," Clinton said. She said anyone who believes she should bow out of her race against Barack Obama, who leads in the delegate count, should take a lesson from college basketball's Final Four.

"Why should anybody play North Carolina? You saw what happened last night," Clinton said, referring to Kansas' upset win over the Tar Heels.

A major problem with her analogy, however, is that there are only so many "points" available for her to win in the remaining primary cycle. Unless Clinton achieves miraculous results in the 10 remaining contests -- as in 65-35 splits in every state -- she won't have enough pledged delegates or enough of the total popular vote to overtake Obama's leads in those categories. Her only hope would seem to be to convince enough superdelegates to back her so she can best Obama in total delegates, despite the will of the voters. Or she could hold out hoping that the Obama campaign implodes in a dramatic fashion, with our without assistance from her campaign.

Arriving around 4:30 PM, Hillary spent a little more than an hour at the reception in Albuquerque's foothills, having jetted in from a previous event in Montana on a day when news broke that Mark Penn was forced to relinquish his role as the chief strategist in her campaign. According to Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams, Penn himself, as well as his polling firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, will still be involved in the campaign but in a diminished role.

At the Sunport after event. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

According to a Washington Post story:

Penn had been a polarizing figure within the Clinton campaign for months because of his personality as well as his strategic vision, but his departure came as a result of another continuing controversy -- the conflicts of interest that resulted from his representing major clients as president of Burson-Marsteller, the giant public relations firm, while working for Clinton.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Penn had met with Colombia's ambassador to the United States to discuss promotion of a free-trade agreement, one that Clinton opposes. Penn apologized Friday for an "error in judgment," and the Colombian government responded a day later by firing Burson-Marsteller.

... Joe Trippi, a senior adviser for the presidential campaign of former senator John Edwards (N.C.), said Penn's decision to keep leading Burson-Marsteller while working for Clinton never made much sense.

"The only real question was, why did it not happen sooner?" Trippi said of Penn's ouster. "The conflicts have been a problem for the campaign from the start."