Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign might be deep in debt, but that didn't stop her from sending some cash in the direction of the Bronx Democratic Party.

Clinton's committee sent two checks to the Bronx Democratic Trustees Committee: One for $$877.60 on Feb. 7 and another for $2,000 on April 24.

All told, the Hillary Clinton for President Committee has made $3,897 worth of contributions since 2007, including $750 to Suffolk County Assemblyman Marc Alessi and $270 to the Dutchess County Democratic Committee in March.

As you'll recall, the Bronx Democratic chairman, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, was once among a handful of New York Hispanic officials who held off endorsing Clinton for president out of a belief that her relationship with his community was too transactional.

He had a change of heart last summer after she was the only presidential hopeful to show up (albeit very belatedly) to a community forum to which Rivera had also invited Barack Obama and John Edwards. She also curried favor with Rivera by putting him on her National HIspanic Leadership Council.

Rivera subsequently became an avid Clinton supporter, even traveling to his native Puerto Rico to campaign on her behalf. (She easily won the June 1 primary there - one week before formally conceding the race to Obama).

The fact that Clinton did better than Obama among Hispanic voters was among the chief arguments made by supporters of the so-called "dream ticket," including Rep. Nydia Velazquez.

Of course, Clinton is the least of Rivera's worries. He has his own problems closer to home these days.

He not only recently suffered from a painful kidney stone, but is also facing a potential challenge to his party leadership by Assemblyman Carl Heastie & Co.

By Elizabeth Benjamin, New York Daily News, July 17, 2008