NEW YORK, NY April 23, 2007 —After a weekend of coffee shops and high school gymnasiums in Iowa, Senator Hillary Clinton returns to New York today. She’ll be speaking about poverty with union workers - before heading to a major fundraiser. WNYC’s Fred Mogul has more.

Clinton has been downplaying the closing gap between Senator Barack Obama and herself, in both polls and dollar amounts. In the first quarter of the year, Obama raised more money for the Democratic primaries than Clinton, though she raised more overall and has more cash on hand.

Obama has been making inroads among many traditional Clinton supporters, in New York and around the country. Tonight, she and her husband go to Chelsea Piers, where they hope to show they still have a lot of deep pockets to draw from. Reportedly, Clinton’s staff is pressuring her to spend more time dialing for dollars, and she’s pressuring contributors to make their maximum legal donations of $4600 now rather than wait.

But if this evening’s event is about who has money, the afternoon one is about who doesn’t. Clinton will talk to Local 32 BJ, one of the largest and most powerful municipal workers unions in the country, about poverty and the working poor. For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul.