Posts Tagged “Campaign Finance”

To test the campaigns’ practices, this author bought two pre-paid American Express gift cards worth $25 each to donate to the Obama and McCain campaigns online. As required by law, the campaigns’ Web sites asked for, and National Journal provided, the donor’s correct name, location and employment. The cards were purchased with cash at a Washington, D.C., drugstore, and the campaigns’ Web sites were accessed through a public computer at a library in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The Obama campaign’s Web site accepted the $25 donation, but the McCain campaign’s Web site rejected it.

Rebecca Donatelli, president of Campaigns Solutions of Alexandria, Va., which processes donations for John McCain, said her system rejected the donation because American Express could not verify that the donor lived at the address given with the online contribution…

“We could lower our standards and accept more money… but this is John McCain’s campaign, and he wants to root out fraud in fundraising and have everything open and as honest as possible,” said Donatelli.

The fact is, Obama’s campaign could set the security measures in conjunction with their online provider to prevent this, and they chose not to. So all of you terrorists that want to see Obama get elected buy your gift cards and go to the nearest Internet cafe and start plugging it in.

More here.

On the heels of one local campaign finance mess comes this. A local news rag is reporting that “Democratic congressional candidate Michael Montagano’s father has bankrolled his son’s living expenses – a violation of campaign laws..”

The National Republican Congressional Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission stating Montagano has had zero in the way of income since the middle of 2007, but managed to buy a $326,000 Elkhart County home with his father and also drives a big-ass gas guzzling Hummer. Montagano’s Hummer was seen downtown yesterday near Toscani’s with a parking ticket on the windshield. I wish the person that had seen that would have snapped a photo.

According to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s complaint, Montagano “accepted payment for routine living expenses from his father after he became a candidate for federal office. There appears to be no history of his father paying his living expenses prior to his becoming a candidate. As such, these payments constitute excessive contributions to Montagano for Congress.”

Nice job Mikey!

AWB