As Clinton Wins G.O.P. Friends, Her Rivals' Task

he intimate gathering at a private home in Corning, N.Y., was pretty typical for an upstate `fund-raiser` featuring Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: dozens of donors clustered in the terrace, listening to her speak, as they sipped wine and nibbled on hors d'oeuvres.

But one thing made the event unusual: The host was a prominent Republican businessman whose brother Amo Houghton was the popular `nine-term` Republican congressman from the area who, it turns out, gives Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat, an "`A-plus`" for the job she is doing.

His brother James, chairman of Corning Inc., agreed. "When I introduced Hillary, I told the crowd that the last time a Houghton had a `fund-raiser` for a Democrat was about 1812," he said.

With her 2006 `re-election` campaign approaching, New York Republican leaders vow to rally party loyalists in a broad effort to topple Mrs. Clinton, who has long engendered deep antipathy on the right.

But as the `fund-raiser` last year in the heavily Republican town of Corning illustrated, the party may have a bit of a problem on its hands.




http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/nyregion...illary.html?8br