First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will come to Cincinnati next month to boost the campaign coffers of two southern Ohio congressional candidates -- Roxanne Qualls and Ted Strickland.
Qualls campaign spokeswoman Beth Davidson said Wednesday that Mrs. Clinton will be the featured guest July 27 at a joint fund-raiser for Ms. Qualls, the Cincinnati mayor who is running against GOP incumbent Steve Chabot in the 1st Congressional District, and Mr. Strickland, the Democratic incumbent in the 6th District. "All the details have not been worked out, but we do have a confirmation that Mrs. Clinton is coming," Ms. Davidson said.
It will probably be a morning event, because Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to travel to Cleveland that day for a fund-raiser for Mary Boyle, Ohio's Democratic U.S. Senate candidate.
Ms. Davidson said it is not yet known whether Mrs. Clinton will be doing any public events on her trip to Cincinnati. The Qualls-Strickland fund raiser will be held at a downtown location to be determined. No ticket price for the event has been set.
Steve Fought, a spokesman for the Boyle campaign, said it is hoped that Mrs. Clinton will attend a public rally in Cleveland in addition to a private Boyle fund-raiser.
Mrs. Clinton will apparently be busy stumping for Democratic congressional candidates through the fall, as the Democrats try to regain control of the House, which they lost to the Republicans four years ago.
The first lady is also planning a trip to Indiana to aid several Democratic congressional candidates.
She was last in Cincinnati in fall 1996, in the midst of her husband's presidential re-election campaign, when she was the featured speaker at a luncheon rally of local Democrats at Music Hall.
Earlier that year, she was the guest of Cincinnati lawyer Stan Chesley, a major Democratic party contributor, at a fund-raising event in Cincinnati for the Democratic National Committee (DNC). That visit was part of a series of Chesley-sponsored fund-raisers in Cincinnati that spring that raised over $1 million for the DNC. Both Ms. Qualls and Mr. Chabot are expected to spend upwards of $1 million on the race, and advocacy groups are expected to pour money into the Hamilton County district.
