I experienced a little frisson of excitement this morning when a quick crawl through the Federal Election Commission website turned up a presidential fund-raising committee for one Hillary Rodham Clinton. Was this the smoking gun? The proof that reporters have been looking for?
As I suspected — and an FEC spokesperson confirmed — it was, in fact, the work of some overzealous “Draft Hillary” types who had gone ahead and registered the committee. The committee has not raised any money. But it got me wondering which other possible-potential-theoretical presidential contenders have inspired (or is it “inspired”?) drafters to go out and register them for presidential bids — and which ones have not.
So herewith a list of the lucky proto-candidates with presidential committees (and apparently draft teams) and those without…
The Presidential Committee’d:
* Virginia Senator George Allen
* Wisconsin senator and favorite insurgent-Democrat-son Russ Feingold
* Ex-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani
* Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
* Former Virginia Governor and chosen Anti-Hillary Democratic contender Mark Warner
The Presidential Committee-less:
* Indiana Senator Evan Bayh
* Delaware Senator and 1988 presidential contender Joseph Biden
* Kansas Senator Sam Brownback
* Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist
* Almost-President Al Gore
* Arizona Senator and 2000 presidential hopeful John McCain
* New York Governor George Pataki
* New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson
* Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
* Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack
— Lizzy Ratner
