Clinton Camp Frantic Over ‘Complacency’

Faced with a newly disciplined opponent and a fresh wave of scandalous headlines, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is sending out its most frantic plea for donations.

Clinton isn’t stupid; she knows that she can’t afford to rest easy and expect the November victory on a silver platter. Clinton has already massively outspent Trump — but, hamstrung by sky-high negatives and a constant stream of scandal, has been unable to pull away from Trump.

“We have to remind ourselves that it’s only August — and that Donald Trump has more than enough time to find his way to a win by November,” Mook wrote.

According to leaked campaign finance reports, Clinton spent over $38 million in July alone, while Trump spent just $18.7 million. Clinton has been running a heavy dose of television ads in swing-states since before the national conventions, while Trump’s first television ads are slated to begin running Monday.

Despite predictions of doom after a few bad post-convention weeks and the torrent of Clinton spending, Trump appears to be pulling Clinton closer to a dead-heat. In the Dornsife/Los Angeles Times “Daybreak” poll taken Saturday, Trump even notched a two-point national lead over Clinton.

The Clinton camp reacted with an impassioned plea for even more campaign cash.

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“Our poll numbers are holding steady, which is good. We’re growing our field organization, building out neighborhood teams in communities all over the country — which is even better,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook wrote in an email to Clinton supporters Sunday. “But that’s happening at a time when our fundraising levels are, frankly, dipping.”

Mook warned the Clinton faithful to be cautious and not overly confidant in the inevitability of Clinton clinching the election in a landslide.

“It seems that with our convention in the rearview mirror and pundits constantly saying that ‘momentum’ is on our side, a lot of people believe that we have this locked up and that donations don’t matter anymore,” Mook wrote. “We have to remind ourselves that it’s only August — and that Donald Trump has more than enough time to find his way to a win by November. After all, he’s already raising nearly as much money as we are and may even pull ahead in the weeks to come.”

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So cough up even more money for Clinton to keep the race about Trump, and not her, through Nov. 8, Mook essentially said.

Clinton’s massive fundraising push also highlights a key paradox of her post-convention campaign strategy: woo former supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ with rhetoric panning the rich but at the same time focus most of her personal efforts on raising huge sums from the super-rich.

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But how does Clinton expect to distance herself from the wealthy Establishment if she continues to cater to them, as she did this past weekend during a lucrative series of private events on the East Coast? Clinton spoke to over 2,200 high-level campaign donors over the weekend, according to The Associated Press — including lavish events at Martha’s Vineyard. One of those lavish events was an “LGBT summer celebration” with pop-icon Cher.

“They’re trying to salt the mine,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon told The Hill. “They’re anticipating real attacks and laying the groundwork now.”

But with Clinton’s conflicting messages obscuring a central justification for her campaign and the steady stream of scandal set to continue, her campaign is worried.

“At this point complacency is the number one thing the campaign is watching for,” a former Clinton aide told The Hill.