Obama holds raffle to help Hillary clear £4.2m debts

BARACK Obama is using his popularity to help Hillary Clinton clear her £4.2million election debts.

Days before Mrs Clinton is confirmed as the president-elect's Secretary of State, organisers of Mr Obama's inauguration have put 10 prime seats for the swearing-in ceremony in a lottery.

The winners will have front-row access at the event on 20 January.

Cash raised through the lottery will go into the pool of money being gathered after one of the costliest election campaigns in US history left Mrs Clinton owing $6.3million.

In the latter stages of the hard-fought campaign for the Democratic nomination, the former first lady had to dip into her own funds to buy TV advertising. She loaned the campaign an estimated £3.3 million to keep it afloat after finding donations were drying up as Mr Obama collected a record haul of almost £20million every month.

After losing the nomination race to Mr Obama, the former New York senator was rewarded with one of the most senior posts within his new administration. As Secretary of State she will be responsible for foreign policy. But once she is confirmed in the position after a Senate hearing next week she will be prohibited from soliciting political donations.

Since November Mrs Clinton has slowly been trimming the debt. At the beginning of that month, she owed £5million. The largest share of the debt, about £3.5 million, is owed to the polling firm of Mark Penn, the Clintons' long-time political strategist. She also owes hundreds of thousands of dollars for printing, equipment rental, phone banks and other services.

Mrs Clinton was given a major boost last month when Mr Obama asked for help from the long list of people and groups who contributed to his campaign. An email signed by vice president-elect Joe Biden was sent to the estimated three million donors. Mr Obama had promised Mrs Clinton, 56, he would help clear her debt after she endorsed him last June.

A fund-raiser headlined by Ugly Betty star America Ferrera in New York last month is believed to have raised close to £300,000.

The decision to raffle off tickets to the inauguration ceremony in Washington underlines the urgency for Mrs Clinton. Donors have so far contributed more than £20million to pay for events staged around the inauguration.

The moves come as former senator Tom Daschle today becomes the first of Mr Obama's Cabinet choices to undergo a hearing. Mr Daschle, Obama's choice as the next health and human services secretary, was appearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The committee, whose chairman is Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, is expected to help draw up legislation designed to expand health insurance coverage.