Super PAC supporting Clinton presidential bid names finance chairs

Ready for Hillary, a super PAC supporting a possible Hillary Clinton presidential bid in 2016, announced on Tuesday that longtime Clinton fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell and Houston lawyers Steve and Amber Mostyn would lead the organization’s national finance committee.

The addition of high-profile fundraising talent is the latest sign of the group’s seriousness and depth of connection to the former secretary of state as she weighs a potential candidacy.

“Hillary is the best candidate to build on the progress President [Barack] Obama has made, and Ready for Hillary is the best vehicle for donors who want to help make Hillary our next president,” Steve Mostyn said in a statement released on Wednesday. Mostyn and his wife contributed $3 million to the Obama-affiliated Priorities USA in 2012.

While Clinton has yet to offer any real indication of her intentions regarding the 2016 contest, Ready for Hillary has moved forcefully to recruit top talent since its launch earlier this year. The group was founded by George Washington University professor Allida Black and Adam Parkhomenko, who worked as a staffer on Clinton’s ill-fated 2008 presidential campaign.

Ready for Hillary received much attention early last month when James Carville, a Democratic strategist who helped engineer Bill Clinton’s winning 1992 campaign, announced he's backing the group. In an email blast, Carville wrote, “We owe it to Hillary to start putting the building blocks of her campaign together now. The modern political campaign demands it.”

Carville’s support mirrors that of many other Clinton family surrogates who have stepped forward in recent months to be part of the Ready for Hillary team. Craig Smith, who recently assumed a senior leadership role with the PAC, served as political director in the Clinton White House; Harold Ickes, another longtime adviser to Bill Clinton, is supporting the group as well.

Buell, who refrained from opening her wallet for Obama in the past two election cycles, led Hillary’s fundraising efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. “Ready for Hillary is the wisest investment right now for anyone who wants Hillary Clinton to be the next president,” Buell said in a statement.