Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has formally given up hope of recovering about $13 million she loaned her failed presidential campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed today.

The decision formalizes what Clinton has said for months: that she will not seek repayment for the money that she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, invested in her White House bid.

But Clinton still owes $6.4 million to vendors that her campaign used during the extended primary battle with then-Sen. Barack Obama. As of Nov. 30, she still owed about $5 million to Mark Penn, her chief strategist and pollster.

Clinton has made strides in paying off her campaign debt, the documents show. She paid media consultant Mandy Grunwald $58,000. And she finished paying her former spokesman, Howard Wolfson, $200,000.

But the clock is ticking. Once she is confirmed as Obama's secretary of state, she will be barred from raising money to pay off the debt. And she still owes plenty to vendors.

Her debts include: $168,437.66 for insurance, more than $750,000 for printing and $3,411 to a bakery in New York.

By Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post, December 22, 2008