“I think the numbers clearly show that she’s the strongest presidential candidate on the Democratic side,” he told The New York Times. “And Priorities is going to be there for her if she decides to run.”
Mr Messina co-ordinated the president’s re-election and has been hired by the Conservatives as a campaign strategist for next year’s British general election. He is the most senior Obama lieutenant to come out in support of a Clinton candidacy.
Priorities, a so-called “super PAC” (political action committee) also announced a new pro-Clinton leadership structure as Democratic heavyweights line up behind the former secretary of state.
Mrs Clinton, who lost out to Mr Obama in a bitter Democrat primary campaign that she entered as the frontrunner, has said that she has not decided whether to run again in 2016.
But with nearly three years until the next election, senior former aides to Mrs Clinton and her husband Bill, who was president from 1993 to 2001, have openly been pushing her to run.
Mr Messina’s comments will drive impressions that Mr Obama is privately supporting a Clinton bid, although Joe Biden, his vice-president, is another prospective candidate.
Mr Messina, who has strong ties to major Democratic donors, will serve as co-chairman of Priorities with Jennifer Granholm, the former Michigan governor who is a prominent Clinton cheerleader.
“This is a very major development and a huge advantage for Hillary Clinton if she decides to run,” Tad Devine, a party strategist who played a senior role in the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry, told The Telegraph. “Priorities will be able to attract enormous support and it means the Democrats will be able to compete with Republican big money donors in financial terms in 2016.
“Presidential campaigns in the US are endless and in order to compete you have to raise unimaginable amounts of money. It’s a financial arms race.”
Clinton loyalists had already formed a Ready for Hillary PAC to raise smaller sums from grass-roots supporters. But Priorities will be seeking big money donations to fund major advertising campaigns and respond to conservative attacks, even before a Clinton declaration, and attack advertisements, as it did against Mitt Romney in 2012.
Matt Bennett, a former Bill Clinton White House staffer now with the Third Way think tank, said the small army of PAC’s and other outside groups working for a putative Clinton campaign were giving her more time to decide on her options.
“There is a very unusual dynamic, where nobody is expecting Hillary to do anything overt, but the campaign is building,” he told The Telegraph.
“It means that she can wait until much later before she declares - perhaps until the second half of next year - which is very late by contemporary standards.”
The Priorities announcement is expected to pave the way for another record-breaking campaign in financial terms. Groups supporting Mr Obama raised $1.12 billion in 2012 – with $79 million coming in from Priorities - while the Romney campaign and backers brought in $1.02 billion.
Mr Messina brings not just his unprecedented political connections, but also his expertise in “big data” and the micro-targetting techniques that allowed the Obama campaign to pin-point his supporters in 2012.
据英国《每日电讯报》报道，美国重量级选举团体“优先美国行动”1月23日明确表示支持希拉里•克林顿参加2016年美国总统竞选，已经开始为此筹款。
***重量级支持
据国外媒体报道，奥巴马前竞选主管吉姆•梅西纳（Jim Messina）近日称，曾在奥巴马2012年大选中扮演关键角色的筹款组织“优先美国行动”已经开始新的筹款行动，这次他们支持的目标是未来可能的总统候选人，美国前“第一夫”人和前任国务卿希拉里•克林顿。
“我相信民意调查数据已经清晰显示，她是民主党最有实力的总统候选人，”梅西纳在接受《纽约时报》采访时说。“如果她决定参选，‘优先行动’将支持她。”
吉姆•梅西纳曾在奥巴马再次当选过程中起到重要的协调作用，最近英国保守党邀请他为英国明年的大选担任竞选策划人。在奥巴马的助手中，他是公开支持希拉里•克林顿竞选的最高级别人物。梅西纳不仅拥有前所未有的政治联系，而且擅长“大数据”和“定位”技术，曾在2012年帮助奥巴马精确定位支持者。
“优先美国行动”目前是美国最大的自由政治筹款组织，梅西纳和前密歇根州长珍尼弗•格兰霍姆将共同担任联合主席；他们都是希拉里的支持者。
***金融军备竞赛
战略专家塔德•迪瓦恩认为情况对希拉里非常有利。他说：“‘优先运动’能够吸引大量资金，意味着民主党将有能力在2016年与财大气粗的共和党捐款人一争高下。美国总统竞选……是一场金融军备竞赛。”
2012年，奥巴马的竞选团队一共筹集到11.2亿美元，其中7900万美元来自“优先行动”。罗姆尼的竞选组织和支持者则为他募集到10.2亿美元。
