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One of the questions surrounding the potential appointment of Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State is what she would do about the nearly $8 million in outstanding bills she has from her presidential campaign (as well as other debt). Federal law would prohibit her from actively raising money to retire the debt and the appearances might not be favorable for someone heading the State Department. Right on cue it seems, Clinton’s campaign organization sent out a fund-raising e-mail to supporters with a little bit of an urgent request:

We are living in a very special time in American history, with an election that has redefined the boundaries of possibility and set our nation on a positive path with new leadership.

Things are changing in Washington and we have reason to hope that the next four years will look much different and better than the last eight.

As we look forward to a new era in Washington, there is still one piece of unfinished business where Hillary needs your help.

We need to do all we can to help Hillary by acting now to reduce her remaining debt.

Hillary Clinton may or may not find herself on the ticket this November, but one thing is clear -- she remains under a pile of campaign debt. Clinton has sent out a new fundraising appeal which gives supporters a chance to win a dinner with her. Here’s part of Clinton’s appeal:

During the campaign, I had the chance a few times to grab meals with supporters, but they were always rushed thanks to the frenetic pace of the campaign. This is my first chance to sit down and spend some real one-on-one time with you. If you enter today, we could be having dinner together soon! … My staff has been calling this my "retirement dinner" -- not because I'm retiring, of course, but because we're working on retiring the debt we owe to small vendors all over the country. And everyone who acts today will have the chance to join me -- along with a guest -- for a dinner to talk about whatever you'd like.

In a fundraising appeal this morning, Hillary Clinton explicitly stated that she is not looking for donations to cover the $12.5 million she loaned her own campaign.

"As you know, I had to loan money to my campaign at critical moments," Clinton writes. "I'm not asking for anyone's help to pay that back. That was my investment and my commitment because I believe so deeply in our cause."

"But I do need your help paying the debts we accrued to others over the course of this campaign," she continues. "We put everything we had into winning this race, and we came just about as close as you can."

As we reported in Starting Gate, Barack Obama's donors have mobilized to help Clinton retire the roughly $10 million in debt that she carried over from her campaign not tied to her personal loan. Clinton thanked Obama in a statement put out by her office: "Senator Clinton appreciates Senator Obama’s generous efforts and is continuing her efforts to raising the moneys he needs to ensure a victory in November."

The full email, which features two large, red "contribute" buttons, is below.

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Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are out with video-based fundraising appeals today. Clinton's appeal directly acknowledges the fact that she now needs contributions to retire the $22.5 million in debt from her campaign, while Obama's shows the nominee speaking to campaign staff shortly after becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee.

"By helping us pay off our campaign debt, you're not just helping Hillary elect a Democratic president and grow our majority in Congress," reads the text on the page where Clinton's fundraising appeal appears. "You're making it possible for her to work as hard as she can on the issues we care about." Below the words is a "contribute" button.

"We still have so much to do together," Clinton says in the video. "We've made history. Let's make some more."

Watch it here.

Obama's video, apparently shot on a hand-held camera, shows the candidate on June 6th in Chicago. Below is a form to fill out to donate to the campaign.

"We don't have an option now," Obama says. "When we were at the beginning of this thing, in Iowa – if I'd lost Iowa, it would have been OK. One of the other Democrats would have emerged, and they would have carried the banner, and we would have joined their campaign, and we would have moved forward."

"But because we won, we now have no choice," he adds. "...We don't have a choice because now, if we screw this up, all those people that I've met, who really need help, they're not going to get help."

Click here to watch it.

UPDATE: John McCain has a new fundraising appeal as well. His involves not a video but a contest: "Join John McCain aboard the Straight Talk Express! Be the lucky supporter to ride with John McCain on the Straight Talk Express on an upcoming bus tour. Everyone who donates between now and June 30th is eligible."

With Hillary Clinton poised to suspend her campaign tomorrow, attention has turned to how she will retire the more than $30 million in debt the campaign has amassed.

Clinton will likely seek Barack Obama's help in paying down the debt, which includes $11 million she lent to her own campaign. It's somewhat unclear how such a process might work: As CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder points out, Obama cannot legally simply transfer money into Clinton's account, though he can lend her his e-mail list and ask his donors for money for her campaign. He could also appear at a fundraiser for his former rival.

Clinton is a prodigious fundraiser herself, and she plans to raise money for Obama's campaign: Her advisors say she could bring in up to $100 million for his general election campaign, according to the Associated Press.

It is something of a tradition for nominees to help their former primary opponents with their debts – such gestures are believed to help unify the party and reduce any lingering primary season bitterness. Negotiations for assistance in paying down debts can also result in the nominee gaining access to the fundraising lists and elements of the campaign structure of his former rival.