Liberal groups back Clinton for president

One of the most potent outside liberal-oriented political groups announced it would back Hillary Clinton if she chooses to seek the White House in 2016, the latest sign that senior members of President Barack Obama’s team were looking to line up with the former first lady.

Priorities USA brought on board Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager and the latest Obama insider to join a pro-Clinton group. With so many Obama veterans lining up to help clear the way for a Clinton campaign, it perhaps adds pressure on Clinton to go forward with another White House bid.

Clinton, a former secretary of state, senator and first lady, says she has not yet decided if she will again seek the White House. But that has not stopped supporters from building a political machine.

The early alignment for Priorities USA sends a clear signal that high-dollar donors were awaiting a Clinton decision and were ready to fork over millions of dollars to promote and defend Clinton from Republican criticism that conservative groups have been levelling for months, trying to weaken her standing.

Other pro-Clinton outside groups have been forming and working to defend her record in her absence. Correct the Record, for instance, has been trying to debunk Republicans’ criticism of her decades in public service while Ready for Hillary has been organising low-dollar fundraisers for her aimed as much at showing grassroots support as building a list of would-be-volunteers if Clinton joins the race. But the formal shift for Priorities signals that big-dollar donors were ready to join the Clinton bandwagon. Priorities and its sister super PAC, Priorities USA Action, both can raise unlimited sums of money and share staff members. But Priorities USA operates under a part of the tax code governing nonprofit groups and can keep its donors secret. The super PAC must release the names of its funders.

Priorities helped raise millions for Obama’s re-election and ran some of the election’s toughest television ads defining Republican nominee Mitt Romney as a heartless corporate raider.

The addition of Messina and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, which had been expected, puts the leadership of the super PAC in the hands of one of Obama’s most trusted advisers and a longtime Clinton supporter.

Before directing Obama’s re-election campaign, Messina was a top 2008 campaign aide and a White House adviser who played a key role in the passage of the president’s health care overhaul. Granholm had previously announced her support of Clinton through a separate super PAC, called Ready for Hillary, and had supported Mrs Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primary.