Hillary Clinton To Fundraise for Marjorie Margolies, Chelsea Clinton's Mother-in-Law

Hillary Clinton will be appearing next year at a fundraiser for Marjorie Margolies' congressional campaign in the Pennsylvania suburbs, according to Ken Smukler, who serves as a communications consultant for Margolies.

Margolies, who is Chelsea Clinton's mother-in-law, is locked in a Democratic primary campaign against a strong progressive, state Sen. Daylin Leach, as well as two others. Margolies served one congressional term in the early 1990s.

Longtime Margolies fundraiser Linda August, who attended Chelsea Clinton's wedding, also confirmed Clinton's upcoming appearance.

"Hillary said from the beginning that she was not going to be political this year except for McAuliffe and family. She is scheduled to come in six months before the election. She is coming in just when we need her," said Smukler, who also serves as spokesman for the local Democratic party. "The Clintons are doing this for themselves as much as for Marjorie. They can't have a family member lose a race for Congress six months before she is gearing up for a presidential election."

Leach said he wasn't concerned by Margolies' support from the Clinton camp.

"We have outpaced all of our opponents in fundraising and outreach since I got into the race," he told HuffPost. "We are following a very carefully crafted campaign plan. That plan does not depend on who does and does not support or attend fund-raisers for any of our opponents. I wish them all well, but I have a long history of winning elections, and I and my team are extremely confident our campaign will prevail on May 20th. "

The campaign of physician Val Arkoosh, another candidate for the congressional seat, disputed Leach's figures, and said Arkoosh currently led in fundraising. "We are the leading fundraiser in this race among the slate of candidates as of the end of the 3rd quarter with 588k cash-on-hand," said communications director Bryan Lesswing. "We are leading state Sen. Leach by over 210k, and Marjorie Margolies by 398k."

Smukler made his comments about Margolies at a fundraiser for the Dorys Erving Fit Youth (DEFY) Foundation at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Philadelphia on Friday night. Dorys is the wife of former NBA legend and Philadelphia favorite son Julius "Dr. J" Erving. Dr. J is currently on a book tour promoting his memoir, "Dr J: The Autobiography."

The foundation will provide a platform for solutions to childhood obesity in Philadelphia. According to the CDC, 25 percent of school age children in Philadelphia are suffering from obesity. The huge cake rolled out for desert illustrates the difficulty of tackling obesity.

The gala attracted many celebrities, such as former Laker star Kareem Abdul Jabbar and R & B singer Jeffrey Osborne, and local politicians such as Congressman Bob Brady. Brady lamented about the ubiquity of fast food chains in Philadelphia.

Osborne's performance was the highlight of the night.

State Senator Anthony Williams, who is running for mayor of Philadelphia in 2015,  and his wife Shari shared a romantic to "On The Wings of Love."

Even Dorys and Julius Erving couldn't resist the music.

At the same event, Jabbar voiced his frustration at the racism of Obama's critics.

"Obama is the President of the United States. He should be treated with respect."Many of the president's critics, especially the birthers, are racist. This nonsense that he was born in Kenya, which we all know is not true, is pure racism," Jabbar said.

The Huffington Post Washington editor Ryan Grim co-wrote this post with me. 

Congressional Candidate Snubbed by Clinton In-laws

When Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz decided to run for Pennsylvania governor in 2014, the Democratic primary for her old seat became wide open. Marjorie Margolies, Chelsea Clinton's mother-in-law, entered the race for her old Congressional seat (Pa 13).  Many pundits assumed that she would become the front runner due to the fund raising prowess of the Clintons. So far, Clintons have not offered Margolies much support, which stands in contrast to the all out effort that former President Bill Clinton waged for Kathleen Kane's contested primary for Pa Attorney General.

Congressional candidate Marjorie Margolies raised $185,000 for the quarter. This puts her last in the race for dollars. State Senator Daylin Leach raised over $350,000, physician Valerie Arkoosh collected more than $285,00, and State Representative Brendan Boyle raised $252,000

Several Clinton loyalists, such as former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Vernon Jordan, and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, did contribute to Margolies' campaign. It is a little surprising that Margolies' Wall Street son or his wife Chelsea did not contribute to his mother's race.

For the Clintons' not to donate to the campaign is akin to a slap in the face. Without Margolies' 1993 vote for Clinton's budget, it would have failed in Congress. She made that vote knowing that she would lose her Congressional seat. 

Hilary Clinton could have given a boost to Margolies campaign when she recently spoke at Bryn Mawr College at the Women in Public Service Project. The project, which trains women in conflict regions to be leaders, is very similar to the program that Margolies runs, Women's Campaign International.  Yet there is no sighting or mention of Margolies.

Chelsea, write your mother-in-law a check. Otherwise, she might not be able to stay in the race.

Women's Campaign International Helping Women Here and Abroad

Tonight, I attended a fundraiser for Women's Campaign International (WCI) headed by former Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky (MMM), who just happens to be Chelsea Clinton's mother-in-law. WCI was started in 1998 after MMM led the United States delegation to the fourth world conference on women in Beijing, China.  First Lady Hilary Clinton spoke at the Beijing conference.

Women's Campaign International teaches advocacy skills to women and girls in emerging democracies and post-conflict regions. They teach the women how to speak in public, effectively lobby, deal with the media, conduct letter writing and social media campaigns etc.

They also run programs that help women being  economically self- sufficient. They teach budgeting, provide agricultural tools in farming regions, and even provide martial counseling for couples to help the women in the home.

They are operating in 16 Middle Eastern and North African countries, having recently been forced to leave Syria due to the escalating violence. They also run a similar program in West Philadelphia. The organization prepares women for elective office by teaching them leadership skills such as public speaking and budgeting.

They do all of this on a shoestring.

Jeff Gavin, a WCI board member said, "Our program in Liberia, which trained 600 women only cost $25,000."

The programs that WCI seems to be making a difference in Muslims' attitude toward the United States.

"After a day of attacks in Iraq, one of the Iraqis called and said tell the United States that we love them." recalled Margolies Mezvinsky.

In a Kevin Bacon moment, MMM recounted a conversation with a state department official, who was asked if he knew about this small, but wonderful program that WCI was running. I am betting that he did since it is run by his boss's in-law.


For those that do not know Margolies Mezvinsky's history, it is pretty incredible to see her still giving to others after everything that she has been through. Some people in her position would have stopped helping other people.