WASHINGTON -- Sen. Christopher J. Dodd had just finished conducting a hearing March 22 on the horrors of subprime lending, where 70 reporters and cameramen - and a standing-room-only audience - heard him rebuke key lenders and regulators over how badly they had hurt consumers.
Then he left the Senate and made what his staff called a "political phone call" to a supporter in California, who wanted to know all about the hearing.
It was a typical day in the world of Dodd, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, using his chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee to boost his White House bid.
Heading one of the Senate's most influential committees - particularly one critical to financial interests - has the potential to give Dodd a lift he badly needs. Not only does it give him a niche that helps keep him in the spotlight, but it likely helped him raise a total of about $4 million in the first quarter of 2007, the presidential race's first test of strength, which ended Saturday night.
That's still much less than most major Democrats, such as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said Sunday that she had raised $26 million in the first quarter.
Dodd does better than some candidates in the cash-on-hand derby, with $7.5 million available, including nearly $5 million transferred from his Senate campaign account.
And Dodd expects a good second quarter - at least partly because of his banking ties. He is well aware of how his position can help him, though he's quicker to emphasize the knowledge he has gained from his committee work.
"I'm the only candidate who can look at the financial community and say, `I know what you do for a living,'" he said. "You watch the lights go on in people's eyes."
At the same time, Dodd contended, he can talk to consumers and discuss their problems with bankruptcy or mortgages or credit cards at length. "I think that's what people like," he said.
But whether the attention and money will ultimately lift his stuck presidential campaign is the question. He remains at 1 percent or less in most national polls. Interest in Dodd, at least among people searching for information on the Internet, is low. His page on YouTube has been visited about 6,300 times, less than one-third the number of the sixth-place contender, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. And former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack has twice as many friends on his MySpace page as Dodd has on his. Vilsack dropped his own presidential bid Feb. 23.
Grass-roots folks just don't follow the latest banking news, analysts say.
Dodd may be the political king of all things financial, said John Fortier of Washington's American Enterprise Institute, but this is not shaping up to be the year of the financial expert. Issues such as the war on terror are more center stage, he said.
But his committee chairmanship definitely gives Dodd an aura, and it provides him with a unique topic of discussion.
At a political breakfast in New Hampshire in February, bankers and businessmen lined up to talk with him.
For days prior to a March hearing Dodd had on subprime lending, his staff sent out press releases about the issue. After the hearing, he held two news conferences.
The work paid off. Within a week, eight publications ran editorials citing Dodd's views.
Last week, his staff sent a 21-page packet to what they called 100 leading editorial boards and reporters. Included was a timeline of Dodd statements and initiatives about the senator's efforts, as well as articles about Dodd from USA Today, The New York Times and other publications.
Dodd said he not only sees financial issues as good topics for the campaign trail, but they help his argument that, as he put it, "experience matters, and I have a lot of experience."
It also helps him stay competitive financially.
Dodd, who last year was the second-ranking Democrat on banking, collected $607,000 in the 2006 fundraising cycle from securities and investment firms, more than any 2008 candidate except Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He also finished second to Clinton in funds raised from commercial banks, with $176,800.
