While Sen. Barack Obama was in New Hampshire at a Democratic fundraiser Sunday night, Sen. Hillary Clinton - Obama's colleague and fellow potential presidential candidate - was in Washington having dinner with a few New Hampshire advisers, former ambassador Terry Shumaker said yesterday.

Shumaker, co-chairman of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential-primary campaign, said a "small group" of veterans from Bill Clinton's campaigns dined with the senator Sunday night. Among other subjects, they discussed Hillary Clinton's possible bid for the White House, he told the Monitor.

"It's obvious she's giving very serious consideration about running for president, and frankly, we encouraged her," said Shumaker, a Bow resident who served as ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago during President Clinton's second term.

Sen. Clinton confirmed for the first time yesterday that she is talking to aides and Democratic activists in New York, Washington and elsewhere about a potential presidential run, the Associated Press reported.

The AP also reported that while Obama spoke to New Hampshire Democrats, Clinton "brought one of the state's prominent Democrats (Shumaker) . . . to her Washington home Sunday night for dinner."

Shumaker said the dinner was more than just a party of two, but he deferred to the senator on most details.

"I wasn't the only person from New Hampshire," he said. "There were a couple of others, but I'm not at liberty to say who they were, because that's really up to them."

Shumaker described the group as a "reunion of old friends" who discussed a range of subjects, including past campaigns, current politics and "the future."

"She asked a lot about people she knew up here," said Shumaker, who confirmed Clinton had also been making calls to activists and advisers in New Hampshire. "I'm not going to share the senator's telephone conversations or even who she called. That's up to her."

Clinton said yesterday that she won't make a decision about running for president until after Jan. 1, the AP reported.

"She's going to do things, I believe, on her own timetable, not on somebody else's," said Shumaker, who currently serves as executive director of NEA-NH, the state affiliate of the National Education Association. "Which is very similar to the way she approached her Senate run."

Should Clinton run for president, the commitment she showed to retail politics during her New York Senate campaign bodes well for the New Hampshire primary - as does the public support the Clintons have demonstrated for New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation role in the past, Shumaker said.

"There's no question in my mind that she's committed to participating in the traditional New Hampshire primary process" if she becomes a candidate, Shumaker said.

Shumaker said he thinks Clinton would make an excellent candidate. "She's a United States senator with vast experience on the Armed Services Committee, she knows what it's like to run for president, she's been through two presidential campaigns, she's very bright, she's very articulate, she's got a great sense of humor, and she connects well with regular people," he said.

Shumaker would neither confirm nor deny whether the dinner was held at Clinton's home, as the AP has reported.

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