PORTLAND (AP) – New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton came to New England on Friday to raise money for two governors and for herself at events in Maine and Massachusetts while avoiding setting foot in New Hampshire, the state with the first presidential primary.

During a fund-raising luncheon for Gov. John Baldacci at a downtown hotel, Clinton attacked President Bush for adopting tax cuts while running up the deficit, for failing to create jobs and for cutting social programs. She also blamed the “right wing” for a lack of bipartisanship and for bringing down the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers.

“We have to stand against this radical right-wing agenda in Washington,” Clinton said to a roar of approval from more than 200 Democrats who paid $500 apiece to hear her speech.

Clinton did not address the indictment of the vice president’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr., on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements. The indictments were announced about 20 minutes before she spoke.

Afterward, Clinton left without taking questions from reporters.

Before the luncheon, she attended a closed-door fund-raising event at the Cumberland Club for the Maine Democratic Party where 100 people paid between $1,000 and $5,000 each. The hotel luncheon afterward pulled in $100,000 for Baldacci.

Baldacci is unopposed for the Democratic nomination; several Republicans are vying for the chance to try to unseat him next year.

Clinton, who also is up for re-election next year, had nearly $14 million in the bank for her 2006 re-election campaign as of Sept. 30, the last reporting period. She also has found time to raise money on behalf of Democratic governors and senate candidates.

After finishing up in Portland, Clinton flew to Boston for an event at the Harvard Club, where she was to raise money for New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch.

Friday evening, she was expected to attend another event at the Fairmont Hotel on behalf of herself and three other Senate candidates seeking re-election: Dianne Feinstein of California, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Maria Cantwell of Washington.

Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s Women’s Senate Network, was speaking to the group.

Clinton, who leads national polls of the party’s potential 2008 presidential candidates, has made speeches across the country but she has studiously avoided New Hampshire, home to the first-in-the-nation primary.

On Friday, she flew into airports in Portland and Boston. The two cities are 105 miles apart.

She still gets the benefit from coming to New England even though she skipped New Hampshire, where a visit would have raised eyebrows, said Dante Scala, political science professor at Saint Anselm College and research fellow at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

“It’s good to make friends in New England for the primary season. So I think the next best thing to coming to New Hampshire is working around New Hampshire,” he said.

In addition to raising money and making friends, the visit helps to set the groundwork for a presidential campaign, if she chooses to throw her hat in the ring, said Richard Maiman, a political science professor at the University of Southern Maine.

“Hillary Clinton makes dozens of speeches around the country, all of them with the same ultimate purpose, which is to build an organization and build support and maybe test the waters for the next presidential election,” he said.

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