In emails, Hillary Clinton campaign measures diversity among staff

Senior staff members on Hillary Clinton's nascent campaign were conscious about diversity in the top ranks two months before the Democratic presidential candidate formally announced her bid, according to hacked emails from the personal account of a top campaign official.

In February 2015, Clinton lawyer and chief of staff Cheryl Mills sent a list of potential hires to campaign chairman John Podesta. Among the suggestions was "Political Director - Hispanic Woman." They eventually hired Amanda Renteria, who is Latina.

Mills sends "Robby's List of the top 10 or so positions," referring to Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook. The email breaks it down: "four 'POC,' or people of color, four women 'assuming COO is a white woman' and six white men." So, the email says, that is "33% diverse, 33% women, 50% white men."

 

The email was among more than 3,000 released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks today and is just one of the tens of thousands posted over the last two weeks. The notes were stolen from the email account of Podesta as part of a series of high-profile computer hacks of Democratic targets that US intelligence officials say were orchestrated by Russia, with the intent to influence the Nov. 8 election. Russia has denied the allegations.

The campaign officials' focus on diversity came in the same month that Clinton's advisers circulated data collected from her family's foundation that found only three of the foundation's 11 highest paid employees were women - and a Democratic consultant expressed concern about the political fallout from the gender discrepancy.

Emails released last week about the Clinton Foundation highlighted a large disparity in the median salaries of the top-paid men and woman working for the organisation.

According to the emails, the median salary of the highest paid men at the foundation was usd 346,106, while the median salary of the highest paid women was $185,386 roughly a $160,000 difference. The numbers came from the foundation's 990 tax forms for 2013, according to the emails.

"There are huge discrepancies, and it wouldn't surprise me if they (the media) went here next," Ian Mandel, a Democratic consultant, wrote.