John Graham

Caren Turner, a Democratic fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, could back John McCain for President
Lifelong Democrat Caren Turner doesn’t plan to vote for Democrats out of a sense of nostalgia. In fact, she’s not sure she’s going to vote Democratic in the coming presidential election.

Turner, a Hillraiser who worked as part of the powerhouse New Jersey fundraising arm called the Group, was among those Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) holdouts who yesterday took part in a feel-out session with a surrogate of Sen. John McCain’s (D-AZ).

Of the group formerly known as "The Group," Michael Kempner last month indicated his absolute adherence to the Obama campaign, as did the Rev. Reginald Jackson; John Graham and others last week sat down with Mark Alexander, senior policy advisor to Obama.

When it comes to presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il.), Graham and others are getting there, and they plan a unity bash for State Party Chairman Joseph Cryan next Thursday.

It’s difficult to find a Clinton supporter who was as stout during theJohn F.X. Graham primary as New Jersey fund-raiser John F.X. Graham, who took his presidential candidate’s loss especially hard.

One of the key members of "the Group" - a conglomerate of Hillary Clinton champions with deep pockets and access to donors with even deeper ones - Graham found it particularly tough to stand at attention within the ranks of Obama backers when the Clinton campaign finally raised the white flag.

In an interview with PolitickerNJ.com two weeks ago, the fund-raiser in fact cringed at the idea of making an easy transition to the team of Clinton’s conqueror.

Hillary Clinton’s top fundraisers in New Jersey want Barack Obama to John F.X. Grahamoffer their vanquished candidate the vice-presidency in a show of respect to her and her 18 million supporters.

"If I don’t see the respect for Hillary Clinton, I will vote for him, but will I be a proactive person? No," said John Graham, national co-chair of fund-raising for the Clinton campaign and one of the money men in that small and powerful circle of Clinton fundraisers in New Jersey known as "The Group."

"Respect is offering her the position with her right of taking it or not taking it," Graham explained. "He can win without her, but Hillary in the picture gives him Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida."

Emerging from the shadow cast by John Kerry’s 2004 presidential loss and after vetting a number of the 2008 hopefuls, The Group came together with the express purpose of raising enough money to get Clinton elected president.

Sen. Bob Menendez, earlier this year with Hillary Clinton: Getty Images Photo
No longer as involved in the day-to-day mechanics of local politics, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) in back to back statewide elections has proved to be his party’s New Jersey go-to guy.

The former mayor of Union City got out the machine-backed Feb. 5 vote for Clinton with a war cry - "We have an opportunity in Hudson, Hudson, Hispanics, Hillary and history." And leading up to June 3, he helped U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9) stare down a party uprising in Bergen County that might have weakened crucial organizational support for U.S. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)

Clinton won by ten points here with significant Latino support, and Lautenberg buried U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1) yesterday, 61-34%.

John F.X. Graham 

At a campaign event in Passaic on Monday night, Clinton fund-raising co-chair John F.X. Graham predicted a victory for his presidential candidate.

"I think it’s going to be the best thing for New Jersey to have someone who’s going to help our state the way she will when she gets in there and gets elected," Graham said. "Hillary Clinton is the most qualified from day one to lead this country, and she will do it. She’ll do a great job."

Robert Kennedy, Jr. in Passaic on Monday night, flanked by U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, left, and Assemblyman Thomas Giblin.

Arguing that his presidential candidate possesses a unique combination of toughness and persuasive power, Robert Kennedy, Jr. electrified a tent-ful of fellow Hillary Clinton supporters on Monday night at a private home in Passaic.

"I was very skeptical at first because I knew she was coming in under the same charges as my father did, which were that she was a carpetbagger," Kennedy, a Westchester, N.Y. resident, said of Clinton’s appeal to him when she first prepared to run for his father’s old Senate seat.

Kennedy said Clinton faced tremendous hostility, especially in traditionally Republican upstate New York - where a Senate candidate must win if he or she is to win the state, in Kennedy’s words.

New Jersey Democrats keep talking about Bob Menendez for Vice President: Getty Images Photo

Hillary Clinton should pick Bob Menendez as her running mate, says Rep. Rob Andrews.  "I think Bob Menendez would be great for the job and I would love to see it happen for New Jersey and for him," said Andrews, a ten-term Congressman and Clinton supporter. 

The Menendez for Vice President campaign was launched last week by John F.X. Graham, a New Jersey Democratic fundraiser and Clinton’s national finance co-chairman.  Several key state Democrats have signed on as supporters of Menendez for a slot on the national ticket, and on Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said that the New Jersey Senator would make a strong vice presidential candidate.   

A top Clinton campaign fundraiser says Bob Menendez would make an ideal candidate for Vice President: Getty Images Photo
Vice President Bob Menendez?

John F.X. Graham, one of Hillary Clinton's National Finance Co-Chairs, thinks that the New Jersey Senator would make a great choice if Clinton wins the Democratic primary.

Graham fired off an email this morning to Clinton Campaign Manager Terry McAuliffe listing politicians who would make good vice presidential material, including the choices most often brought up: Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, John Edwards and Joe Biden. But Menendez, a Clinton campaign national co-chair, would be the "most intriguing" choice, Graham wrote.

Graham said that, like Richardson, Menendez can appeal to the increasingly important Latino voting bloc, but has universal appeal as well. And Mendendez's Cuban heritage makes him well received in Florida's predominantly Republican Cuban-American community.

"The name Richardson does not exactly sound Latino," wrote Graham. "The Latino voting block is becoming the most influential in this election, especially with the immigration and other economic issues confronting our prosperity. For a lack of a better term, he is the Latino Barack Obama with the experience."

John F.X. GrahamIt looked like the second coming of Edmund Muskie in New Hampshire as an emotionally glistening-eyed Sen. Hillary Clinton experienced what John Graham said was a "minor meltdown" Monday on her way into the New Hampshire primary.

But in what a redeemed and jubilant Graham a day later called "the greatest comeback in American primary history," Clinton beat Sen. Barack Obama by two percentage points.

"She was down by double digits and written off," said the New Jersey Clinton fund-raising co-chair who stormed New Hampshire over the weekend with a contingent of New Jerseyans that included U.S. representatives Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell Jr.

At the end of his efforts, Graham was for 48 hours left exhausted and morose over Clinton’s prospects for victory only to rebound in euphoria with the presidential candidate on Tuesday night.

Hillary Clinton's supporters have a dream. They see current Iowa frontrunner Barack Obama limping into a shocking third place finish in the Jan. 3rd caucus and then standing before a crowd of youthful campaign volunteers with a hand-held microphone.