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Jennifer D. Wade Journal

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That Didn't Take Long

***update:  the newspaper seems to have jumped the gun.  The latest word is that Hillary will be here "soon," but not tomorrow***

From today's Citizen's Voice:

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will pay a campaign visit to Northeastern Pennsylvania on Thursday, the first of what is likely to be several visits by the Democratic presidential candidates before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary election.

Clinton and her campaign entourage are expected to fly into the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport late Thursday afternoon for a rally at an undetermined location, airport director of public safety George Bieber said.

Bieber said the campaign wanted to have an indoor rally for about 1,000 people at the airport, but the facility doesn’t have room for one. Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty, a supporter of Clinton and heavily involved in her organization locally, confirmed the visit. He said the airport was likely out as a rally site, but listed the Scranton Cultural Center and the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre as potential alternatives.

Doherty said a return visit by Clinton or a surrogate could happen the weekend of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which is March 15.

Tom Cawley, chairman of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Association, said the parade does not invite political candidates to march, but allows other organizations to host candidates. Still, he had not been contacted by either campaign about planning for either Clinton or her rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, to march in the parade.

“I think we’ll probably know more in a day or two,” he said. “I think they are just waiting to see what happens in Ohio and Texas.”

Mark Nevins, Pennsylvania spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said he could not confirm the visit.

Efforts to reach Obama’s Pennsylvania spokesman were unsuccessful.

The visit to the region will be the second for Clinton in the last year. She and former President Bill Clinton flew in the day before Memorial Day for the baptism of her niece at Court Street United Methodist Church, the church her late father, Hugh Rodham, attended when he lived in Scranton. They later attended a fundraiser.

The Rodham family maintains a cottage at Lake Winola, where the Clintons often vacationed before Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas. They also visited for Rodham’s funeral in 1993 and the baptism of a nephew in 1995.

bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com

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