Calabasas fundraiser welcomes Hillary Clinton
By Michael Picarella pic@theacorn.com

Photo courtesy Keith Munyan Photography EYE ON CALABASAS—Rashel Pouri introduces Sen. Hillary Clinton at a recent fundraiser which Pouri helped organize. The Senator expressed interest in the city’s innovative solutions to local problems, according to Mayor Barry Groveman, who had the opportunity to chat with the former first lady.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (DNew York) visited Calabasas recently on a fundraising campaign hosted by Calabasas resident Rashel Pouri, who’s been friends with Clinton for about eight years.

Pouri, who operates a number of businesses including a fund-raising organization for children surviving war in the Middle East, helped organize the Clinton visit.

Clinton and her supporters are looking not just at the Senate, but beyond.

“I am—and a lot of other people are—hoping she’ll run for president and I’m sure she will,” Pouri said.

Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2000 following her husband’s two terms as president. Hillary Clinton will be up for re-election to the Senate in November 2006.

Calabasas, which has received growing recognition as a suburban headquarters for Southern California’s entertainment industry, is also known as a little city with big ideas, said Mayor Barry Groveman.

The city also is home to a large number of Democratic supporters.

“I was able to have a nice conversation with Sen. Clinton,” Groveman said. “She was very interested in Calabasas and particularly interested in how Calabasas, as a small city, approached typical problems like traffic congestion and other complex transportation issues plaguing cities all over the country.

“She was fascinated with some of the innovative ideas we’re implementing,” Groveman said.

Pouri suggested that the Clintons might be looking for property in Calabasas.

“ ( C l i n t o n ) loved my house,” Pouri said.

Clinton will be coming back to Calabasas in June as her campaign builds momentum, according to Pouri.

“It’s a great time to be mayor of Calabasas,” Groveman said. “We’re blessed with terrific resources, great open space, great vistas and very influential residents, all within proximity of Los Angeles. I told the Senator she was visiting the ‘last frontier’ and gave her a symbol of Calabasas to take back to Washington to remind her of hope and tranquility next time she felt the pressures of the big city. I sense she will be back often.”

Clinton was known as a serious-minded, activist first lady. Her staunch support of children’s issues and women’s rights gained her widespread recognition. But she also chaired the ill-fated Task Force on National Health Care Reform.

She’s been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.