FORMER Republican donors are lining up behind Hillary Clinton for president as she establishes a formidable lead over her rivals for the Democratic nomination.

James Gould, a venture capitalist in the swing state of Ohio, has offered to hold a fund-raising party for Clinton after backing President George W Bush’s reelection in 2004. He has already donated the maximum individual contribution of $2,300 and is now tapping his friends for more. “I think she’s misunderstood,” Gould said.

Like many Republicans and independents, Gould backed Bush over the war on terror and had expected the president to be a low-spending conservative.

“I thought we needed a strong leader around the world at a time when we also needed fiscal leadership. We didn’t get it,” he said.

“I was in favour of going into Iraq but I was wrong.”

Dissatisfaction with Bush’s record is persuading Republicans and swing voters to give Clinton a fresh look. She has been described as “unelectable” because nearly 50% of voters disapprove of her, but her swelling campaign coffers bear out her own contention that she is capable of changing minds.

Bush donors who have switched to Clinton include a heady mix of socialites from both the East and West Coasts, prominent lobbyists and Wall Street financiers who like to back the winner. With Clinton leading her Democratic rivals by nearly 20% in the polls, there is much to be gained by courting her favour.

One Florida lawyer said he had swapped from Bush to Clinton because “I give when somebody leans on me. Clients say, ‘I expect you to contribute’, so I do. I know George Bush and Hillary Clinton personally and there is no difference between them. They’re politicians who worry about themselves first.”

The Clinton campaign machine is far more effective than its Republican rivals at soliciting donations. Gould said he had received a telephone call from Clinton inviting him to meet her in New York: “We talked for hours and I liked her a lot more than I thought I would. She’s really smart. I was very impressed.”

Gould continues to be badgered by Clinton’s team. “I get phone calls from their campaign continuously,” he said. “They’re very good at converting their calls into money.”

Bruce Bartlett, an economist and former adviser to Ronald Reagan, broke ranks with Bush with the publication last year of his book, Impostor. He assailed Bush’s high-spending, deficit-laden record and is now backing Clinton for president.

“She seems like the least bad candidate who is running,” Bartlett said. “All the Republican candidates are suffering from the mistakes of this administration. If they’re just going to continue Bush’s policies, what’s the point of voting for them?”

Clinton is also wooing back “Democrats for Bush” such as Robert Weyher, the owner of a construction company in Utah, who donated to Bush’s reelection campaign but has now contributed to Clinton’s fund. “I was very supportive of the war, but they seem to have gone totally astray,” he said.

Weyher thinks Clinton will be tough on foreign policy: “I believe she has an iron soul and nobody can push her around.”

The closer she comes to winning the nomination, the more Clinton is aiming her rhetoric at Republicans and independents, rather than Democratic party activists.

She risked the left’s displeasure in a presidential debate in New Hampshire last week by suggesting that some troops could remain in Iraq for years. She also voted in the Senate to designate the Iranian revolutionary guard a terrorist group.

Despite his prominence as a donor, Gould believes Clinton is right not to take his vote for granted: “I don’t feel she represents all the things I believe.

Much as I like her, I’m not convinced she’s a fiscal conservative who understands that raising taxes is not the answer.”

He added: “The key to the race is who the Republicans put up as a candidate.” If it is Mitt Romney or a fundamentalist candidate, he said, “I’d rather take a chance with Hillary.”

Gould said he liked Rudolph Giuliani, former mayor of New York, but “I don’t know much about him”. If Giuliani’s team is half as competent as Clinton’s, they will call him at once.

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