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(AP) - Forget about the paltry 10 electoral votes
and late-in-the-game caucuses. Minnesota's political financiers and
vaunted health care system drew Democratic presidential contender
Hillary Rodham Clinton to Minneapolis Friday.

      It was her first visit to Minnesota as a presidential candidate.

      Before heading to a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser at the Minneapolis
Club, Clinton created a buzz at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, where
employees, patients and visitors gathered to see the New York
senator and snap her picture with cell-phone cameras.

      She toured an orthopedics ward and spoke with a labor-management
team working to improve the hospital's services and working
environment.

      "It's very exciting to me to see this actually happening,"
Clinton told a couple dozen employees and managers. "It has to
happen. We have no alternative but to try to deal with these tough
problems or we're going to continue to see hospitals closed, and
we're going to continue to see more uninsured people and we're
going to continue to see a lot of people who don't get the care
that they need. That's not America."

      Clinton had an edge among Minnesota donors in early 2007, the
most recent figures available. Democratic heavyweights including
health care executive Lois Quam, publisher Vance Opperman and
former Sen. Mark Dayton gave her a total of $84,000.

      She is running in a Democratic field that includes Illinois Sen.
Barack Obama, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and New
Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

      Despite the friendly reception at the hospital, not everyone was
persuaded that the former first lady should be the next president.

      Nurse Nancy Antin checked her watch as she waited for Clinton's
arrival during her break, and said she was still weighing the
Democratic candidates.

      "I'm not going to get any answers today, but I'd like to see
her," she said.

      Beverly Thompson, a health unit coordinator in orthopedics who
walked Clinton through the hospital's electronic medical records
system, also was considering her options.

      "My favorite person to be honest is Dennis Kucinich, but I
don't think he'll get very far so I'll probably support whoever
gets the Democratic nomination," she said, referring to the Ohio
representative. "My biggest problem with Hillary is that I think
she'd be a polarizing figure."

      Clinton last visited the state in October to raise money for
then-candidate Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat who won her U.S. Senate
race.
      

Gallery

Martiga Lohn

Author

Minnesota's political financiers and
vaunted health care system drew Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton to Minneapolis Friday.

On Minnesota visit, Clinton tours hospital, plies donors

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