Inside the Clinton camp lurks a shadowy organizer and friend who will become very powerful if she makes Hillary the prez

1. Adviser to Senator Clinton Stays in Shadows -- by RAYMOND HERNANDEZ/NY Times

As Bill Clinton embarked on his 1992 presidential run, he relied on the counsel of high-octane advisers like James Carville and Paul Begala, who embraced the spotlight and were given to hyperbole in what was a gutsy, if somewhat undisciplined and freewheeling, campaign.

Now, as Hillary Rodham Clinton lays the groundwork for a similar bid, the person she is relying on to run things is a reclusive adviser who is intolerant of leaks, who demands strict loyalty from her staff and who, on those rare occasions that she speaks publicly, measures each word.

Her name is Patti Solis Doyle, and the job of mapping out the senator’s national political strategy falls to her. Indeed, as the news media buzz grows around Mrs. Clinton’s political ambitions, Ms. Solis Doyle has worked in the shadows wooing prominent donors over dinners, meeting with some of the Democratic Party’s top talent for potential campaign openings, and conferring with Mrs. Clinton on an almost daily basis.

Officially, Ms. Solis Doyle, 41, is the executive director of Hillpac, known widely as Hillary Inc., a vast political operation that has employed as many as 50 press assistants, opposition researchers, media specialists and fund-raisers at any one time. But Ms. Solis Doyle’s title does not begin to convey the singular role she has played for Mrs. Clinton since the two women crossed paths about 16 years ago.

The close association between Ms. Solis Doyle and Mrs. Clinton provides an insight into how things work in Mrs. Clinton’s tight circle of confidantes and advisers — and reflects the degree to which Mrs. Clinton prizes strict allegiance and devotion. The senator’s political operation is impermeable, highly disciplined and, as some supporters acknowledge, at times scripted to a fault. It is Ms. Solis Doyle who keeps it running smoothly, but some Democrats outside her organization say Mrs. Clinton’s reliance on an insular cadre of loyal assistants chokes off the spontaneity needed to succeed in a national campaign.

Ms. Solis Doyle solidified her leadership in Team Clinton in 2000, when she was dispatched to New York from the White House to restore order to Mrs. Clinton’s first campaign for the Senate after it became top-heavy with strong-willed consultants with different ideas about the direction of the campaign. (Some Clinton associates have come to refer to two distinct periods in that race: “B.P. and A.P.,” or “Before Patti” and “After Patti.”)

Over the past six years, Ms. Solis Doyle has been the architect of an expensive and potentially risky strategy to build a list of hundreds of thousands of small donors who the campaign hopes would quickly provide contributions if Mrs. Clinton announced plans to run for president.

Some of her closest advisers have likened it to flicking a switch that will lead to a torrent of donations. But, skeptics say, the strategy, employing a process known as prospecting that involves mailing out millions of solicitations, has been a drain on Mrs. Clinton’s campaign treasury and may not bear fruit — though the donor list proved bountiful for her 2006 re-election effort.

Ms. Solis Doyle shuns publicity to such an extent that a search on Google for her image is futile, reflecting an aversion to attention that stands apart in the attention-grabbing world of political consultants.

In fact, people who know her say it has often been a source of frustration to her when members of Mr. Clinton’s notably garrulous inner circle in the White House have mused publicly in the news media about Mrs. Clinton’s career plans.

But in recent weeks, the focus on “Hillaryland” — the phrase Ms. Solis Doyle coined to describe the senator’s close network of advisers — has intensified with Mrs. Clinton’s discussions about a possible presidential run.

In her first in-depth interview about herself and the operation, Ms. Solis Doyle was visibly uncomfortable with the attention. “I hate this,” she said this week, after having relented to the entreaties of her staff that she grant an extended interview. “I’ve always been behind the scenes.”

Turning her attention to the 2008 presidential race, she said Mrs. Clinton would not be pressured into hastily announcing her decision about a presidential run, despite the intensifying jockeying among the other Democratic presidential contenders, most notably Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

“She has her own timetable,” she said. “We won’t be rushed by the media, and we won’t be rushed by any other candidate.”

Mrs. Clinton was an obscure first lady of a small state when she met Ms. Solis Doyle, then a recent Northwestern University graduate who had considered becoming an elementary school teacher. Ms. Solis Doyle became Mrs. Clinton’s chief scheduler in Arkansas and held the same job in the White House.

She has been by Mrs. Clinton’s side through times of triumph (Mr. Clinton’s first presidential victory in 1992 and Mrs. Clinton’s Senate victory in 2000) as well as adversity (Whitewater, the universal health care debacle and the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal).

A daughter of Mexican immigrants, Ms. Solis Doyle has a playful manner that masks what associates say is her brutally competitive nature. It is her wont to cackle and then exclaim “Poor little thing!” when misfortune befalls a rival (the gaffe-prone Jeanine F. Pirro , the former Westchester County district attorney, comes to mind, for example).

As it turns out, that rough-and-tumble streak runs in her family. Her eldest brother, Daniel Solis, is the president of the notoriously unruly City Council in Chicago, where Ms. Solis Doyle grew up on the city’s mostly poor South Side.

The relationship between Ms. Solis Doyle and Mrs. Clinton transcends the office. Mrs. Clinton gave a reading at Ms. Solis Doyle’s wedding.

A few years back, Ms. Solis Doyle took a lucrative job at a prominent Washington media relations firm, only to return to the Clinton fold after a few months. Ms. Solis Doyle privately said that she did not find the work as fulfilling as working for her old boss.

“Here’s the bottom line: She is loyal,” said Peter Ragone, a veteran Democratic strategist who was a member of Al Gore ’s 2000 presidential campaign.

But some say that insularity closes out other voices.

“The people around Hillary are controlled, disciplined people, but all of that control can choke off the spontaneity and emotion that a winning national candidate needs to show voters,” said one New York Democratic supporter of Mrs. Clinton’s who has talked to her about her presidential aspirations, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he was not authorized to speak about the campaign apparatus.

But Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman from South Carolina, said Mrs. Clinton has to keep a tight rein on her organization.

“If you are a person who has the exposure and the profile that Senator Clinton has, you have to control your message because there are so many people out there who want to embarrass you,” he said. “But she has a mind and a personality that is strong enough to reach out to other people.”

In a profession built on personal relationships, Ms. Solis Doyle has used her clout to help her amass plenty of i.o.u.’s — something that may help Mrs. Clinton in any national campaign.

Mr. Ragone, who later worked for Gov. Gray Davis of California, recalled that Ms. Solis Doyle was always receptive during the governor’s 2003 recall election when the Davis campaign needed Mrs. Clinton to make a personal appearance on the governor’s behalf or needed help contacting prominent fund-raisers.

“She returns phone calls and makes things happen,” Mr. Ragone recalled.

Clinton associates say that the source of Ms. Solis Doyle’s power is plain. “Patti and Hillary know and trust each other implicitly,” said Rahm Emanuel, a representative from Illinois who was Bill Clinton’s political adviser in the White House.

But Ms. Solis Doyle’s job is a grueling one, routinely forcing her to work well past midnight, as the late-night e-mail and instant messages that she sends attest. “She’s my friend,” Ms. Solis Doyle said, offering an explanation for her devotion to Mrs. Clinton. “You think I would do this for anybody else?”


2. Clinton and Giuliani Have the Early Edge For '08, Poll Shows -- by Dan Balz and Jon Cohen/Washington Post

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R), who briefly competed against each other in a Senate race in 2000, hold early leads over potential rivals for their parties' 2008 presidential nominations, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Clinton has a clear head start over other prospective Democratic candidates, with Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who only a month ago expressed interest in the 2008 race, running second and former senator John Edwards (N.C.), the party's 2004 vice presidential nominee, in third.

Giuliani's advantage in the Republican race appears more tenuous: He holds a narrow lead over Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who is far ahead of Giuliani in organizing a presidential campaign. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who has not disclosed his plans for 2008, is well back in third.

Giuliani enjoys strongly favorable ratings, according to the survey, with two-thirds of Americans giving him positive marks. His leadership after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, earned him widespread praise.

Clinton remains the most polarizing politician among those considering a campaign for president in 2008, but her image has improved perceptibly during her six-year tenure in the Senate.

In contrast, McCain's favorability ratings have declined over the past nine months. Among independents, his support has dropped 15 percentage points since March. Independents were his strongest supporters when he sought the Republican nomination in 2000. The decline comes at a time when McCain is calling for sending more troops to Iraq and has aggressively reached out to conservative groups and Christian conservative leaders.

These early poll results largely reflect name identification among the field of candidates, which includes several political celebrities and many others who remain generally unknown to people outside their states. As a result, hypothetical matchups are often poor predictors of what will happen once the primary and caucus season arrives in early 2008, and as voters learn more about where candidates stand on important issues.

But the findings provide early clues to the shape of the presidential nomination battles while raising questions that will be answered only by months of campaigning, debates, speeches and town hall meetings.

The poll underscores, for example, the degree to which the Republican field is dominated at this stage by two candidates who have never been the darlings of the GOP's conservative base, which is very influential in the party's primaries. McCain warred with conservatives -- particularly evangelical leaders Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell -- when he ran in 2000, though he and Falwell have patched things up. Giuliani enjoys popular support among Republicans, although he supports abortion rights, gay rights and gun control.

On the Democratic side, Obama has made a quick and favorable impression but is still generally unknown and certainly not the only potentially significant rival to Clinton, should both formally enter the race.

Among Democrats, Clinton leads the field with 39 percent, followed by Obama at 17 percent, Edwards at 12 percent, former vice president Al Gore at 10 percent and Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the party's 2004 nominee, at 7 percent. No other Democrat received more than 2 percent.

When those surveyed were asked their second choice, Clinton's advantage became even more evident. She is the first or second choice of 60 percent of those surveyed, with Obama second at 33 percent.

Clinton receives significantly higher support among women than men (49 percent to 29 percent) and is favored by more moderates than liberals. Obama has almost equal support among men and women but has twice as much support among liberals as among moderates.

Among Republicans, Giuliani is favored by 34 percent to McCain's 26 percent. Gingrich is at 12 percent, and outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney runs fourth at 5 percent.

The Post-ABC poll also asked Americans to rate some of the potential candidates from both parties. Giuliani topped that list with a 67 percent favorable rating. Clinton was next at 56 percent, followed by McCain at 50 percent, Edwards at 49 percent and Obama at 44 percent. But many people haven't formed solid impressions of candidates such as Obama and Edwards.

Clinton had the highest unfavorable rating, at 40 percent, but Romney had the worst ratio: 22 percent favorable to 24 percent unfavorable, with 54 percent saying they didn't know enough about him to have an opinion.

There was another potentially more significant issue for Romney in the survey. Asked whether they would be more or less likely to vote for a candidate who is Mormon, as Romney is, 35 percent said they would be less likely and 3 percent said they would be more likely. Sixty-one percent said it would make no difference.

Underscoring the fragility of early polls on the presidential race is the fact that most Americans know little about where the candidates stand on specific issues. Just 45 percent said they knew a great deal or a lot about Clinton's positions, by far the highest number on that question.