Republicans Start Campaign to Keep Hillary Out of the White House

She has not even declared her intention of running for president, but the long shadow of Hillary Rodham Clinton over American politics has already prompted Republicans to train their sights on the former first lady.

The Republican strategist Arthur Finkelstein is reportedly raising $10m (£5.3m) for a political action committee called Stop Her Now. He aims to prevent Mrs Clinton's re-election to the Senate next year and ultimately thwart any bid for the White House.

Stop Her Now is a so-called "527" advocacy group, similar to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group, which helped undermine presidential can didate John Kerry in November's election. The groups began to emerge last year after campaign funding reform prevented donors giving unlimited sums directly to political parties.

Mr Finkelstein, an adviser to the New York state governor, George Pataki and the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is a controversial figure within his own party.

He raised eyebrows by warning against the influence of evangelical Christians. He is also openly gay, and startled some party supporters when headlines at the weekend disclosed that he recently married his male long-term partner.

Although Mrs Clinton has refused to be drawn on the presidency, she is widely seen as a leading contender among the Democrats, and her popularity in New York is at an all-time high.

She was introduced as "the next great president of the United States of America" at an address in Minnesota at the weekend. One of her advisers told AP that the Stop Her Now group was evidence that the Republicans planned "a negative campaign of lies and distortion".

The New York Republican party chairman has also launched a Stop Hillary Now fundraising drive. In a letter dated Friday and seen by AP, Stephen Minarik said the campaign "is not merely a race for New York. It's a race for America. Stopping Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most important thing you and I can do as Republicans in the next two years."

Ms Clinton has told potential supporters in an email that she is the "No 1 target for the rightwing attack machine".

Her spokeswoman Ann Lewis told AP that the Clinton campaign was "not surprised that the Republican party has chosen to wage a personally negative campaign. They don't want to talk about Hillary's record of working for New Yorkers, throughout the state and in the Senate."