With Republicans calling Hillary Clinton the "candidate-in-hiding," anxious Democrats are concerned she's hurting her potential campaign by delaying an announcement that she plans a White House run.
While the GOP field is wide open with at least a dozen candidates, the former first lady is seen as the clear front-runner for the Democratic Party’s nomination with no serious challengers in sight, according to
The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper says that Hillary is "best-served" biding her time before officially entering the race, although she is expected to make an announcement between April and July.
However, leading Democrats and Clinton allies want the former secretary of state to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later, so that she can start raising funds and setting up her organization in early presidential voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
Democrats in Iowa, in fact, fear that Clinton faces "a backlash" if she stays on the sidelines for too long before confirming her candidacy, the Journal reported.
Linda Nelson, who leads the Pottawattamie County Democrats in the state, said: "I’ve heard folks who are disgruntled. They’re starting to think, 'Well, if she’s not going to announce any time soon, I may just start looking elsewhere.'"
The Republican National Committee is hoping to exploit Clinton’s silence by attempting to focus on the fact that she's the "candidate-in-hiding," the newspaper reported.
And one of Clinton’s potential opponents said that Clinton’s delay may lead Democrats to believe that her nomination is a foregone conclusion, which is reminiscent of the mistakes that were made by her campaign eight years ago.
"Nobody knows that better than Barack Obama," said Craig Crawford, a spokesman for former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat who’s mulling over a possible bid. "He got all kinds of running room in 2007."
But Clinton’s spokesman Nick Merrill refuted the suggestion that Clinton believes her nomination is inevitable. "There’s no red X on a calendar somewhere," he said of a possible scheduled announcement date.
"But make no mistake, if she runs … she will take nothing for granted, and she will fight for every vote."
In most polls, Clinton leads the potential Democratic field by 50 points, a group that includes Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has declared repeatedly that she will not be seeking the Democratic nomination.
With room to breathe, the longer Clinton waits the less money she will spend on creating and keeping a campaign team, according to Ed Rendell, a former Pennsylvania governor and a 2008 Clinton supporter.
"The costs are going to be less," said Rendell. "There’s no fight and no campaign apparatus. The apparatus costs money."
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