U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz is spending the weekend in Maine and Boston, fundraising and offering his support and advice to some grass-roots groups that are mobilizing for the presidential campaign of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Schatz, who announced his support for Clinton for president last spring, said she needs to focus her energies right now on early primary and caucus states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. The campaign was looking for people to campaign on her behalf in other areas, and Schatz offered to help.

"I think the Clinton campaign wants to make sure they have a robust 50-state strategy that treats every state with respect and every caucus with respect, so I’m going to try to be helpful wherever I can," Schatz said.

He said he made a case for Clinton in an interview with a local CBS affiliate TV station in Portland, Maine, on Saturday and planned to meet with Democratic Party officials Saturday night, followed by a breakfast fundraiser in Portland this morning. He will then travel to Boston to speak to students at Wellesley College who are organizing for Clinton, who is an alumna.

"My enthusiasm for Secretary Clinton comes from my belief that it is a dangerous and complicated world, and she is not just the most qualified person to be president in 2016, but one of the most qualified people to run for president in decades," Schatz said.

The Maine municipal caucuses will be March 6, and Clinton has named a leadership council in Maine that includes a former governor, the state House speaker and the attorney general to help steer her campaign there.