FEC Queries McCain Campaign on 'Excessive Contributions'

[maddezmom]

Source: Washington Post

FEC Queries McCain Campaign on 'Excessive Contributions'
By Matthew Mosk
While the Republican Party is pushing the Federal Election Commission to investigate the possibility that Democrat Barack Obama collected excessive contributions, its own candidate is facing scrutiny on the same subject.

The FEC sent a letter to Sen. John McCain's campaign treasurer Sept. 30 demanding the candidate turn over more information about "contributions that appear to exceed the limits."

The letter is accompanied by a nine-page list showing scores of overages from McCain's August campaign finance report, including nearly $13,000 from Texas rancher Ray R. Barrett Jr.; $9,200 from an Iraqi security consultant, H. Carter Andress; and $5,000 from Joseph F. Davolio, an executive at a major national liquor, beer, and wine distributor.

"Please inform the Commission of your corrective action immediately in writing and provide photocopies of any refund checks and/or letters reattributing or redesignating the contributions in question," the letter from the FEC's senior campaign finance analyst, Leah S. Palmer, says. "The acceptance of excessive contributions is a serious problem."

The FEC sent its letter a week before a lawyer for the Republican National Committee said the party will ask the Federal Election Commission to look into the source of thousands of small-dollar contributions to Obama.



Read more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/06/fec_queries_mccain_campaign_on.html?hpid=topnews

[Renew Deal]

1. McCain knew this was coming.

That's why he attacked Obama.

[cui bono]

7. Well, at least Rove knew. I don't think McCain knows anything. n/t

[99 Percent Sure]

10. Exactly. n/t

[stopbush]

2. Explains McSame filing the complaint about Obama a few days ago.

The FEC is after Mc, so he wants to muddy the waters by IMPLYING without a shred of proof that Obama is just as dirty as him. It's he said/he said, "they all do it" shit.

[Democat]

3. Democratic Party should sue McCain and make it public!

Leave no attack unpunished.

Every time McCain attacks Obama, Obama should attack McCain twice as hard.

Offense is the only thing Republicans understand and can't deal with.

They love to put Democrats on the defense, but they don't know what to do when a Democrat attacks them.

Obama needs to attack them every day to keep them off balance.

[hasssan1]

6. I 110% AGREE

[xxqqqzme]

Malone: "...They pull a knife, you pull a gun.

He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That's* the *Chicago* way! ...Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? ..."

edit to add link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094226/quotes

[FVZA_Colonel]

4. Don't McCains numbers basically equal or exceed Obama's?

He might not have given as much thought to this as he ought to have.

[NJmaverick]

5. typical scumbag repuke tactic

[cui bono]

8. Well that'll make him have to pull out of yet another state.

:)

[tclambert]

11. McCain can't afford to pull out of another state

The electoral map on RealClearPolitics.com shows 264 electoral votes solid or leaning for Obama. Only 163 for McCain. 111 are listed as toss-ups. McCain basically has to win every toss-up state or it's game over. If he concedes any toss-up state, he concedes the election.

Among the toss-up states are Florida and Ohio, both currently showing 3% leads for Obama. At 5% they would count as leaning. If McCain loses either of those states, he loses, period.

Toss-up state Virginia is at +4.9% for Obama, 0.1% from being counted as leaning Obama and putting 13 more electoral votes in the blue. That would total 277. It takes 270 to win.

On the 4th, Pennsylvania went from leaning Obama to solid Obama (> +9% for Obama).

Today, the 6th, Georgia has gone from solid McCain to only leaning toward McCain. That's right, I said McCain is slipping in GEORGIA!

RCP National average of many polls over the last few weeks looks like this:

9/18) +1.9% Obama
9/21) +2.2% Obama
9/24) +3.5% Obama
9/27) +4.3% Obama
9/30) +4.8% Obama
10/1) +5.3% Obama
10/2) +5.7% Obama
10/3) +5.8% Obama
10/4) +5.9% Obama
10/5) +5.9% Obama
10/6) +6.4% Obama

Can you detect a trend?

Gallup daily tracking shows an 8% Obama lead nationally, and pretty stable for the last several days. But other polls are showing steady gains for Obama, which shows in RCP's averages.

[cui bono]

14. And that's what makes it that much sweeter. Can't afford to stay in OR pull out!

:bounce:

[tclambert]

17. I think you replied before I was done editing.

I accidentally posted with it half done. Now I've got some lovely data. Whaddaya make of those numbers?

[cui bono]

18. LOVE them numbers!

:applause:

[Plucketeer]

20. There's one state McCain can't pull out of

The state of delusion he's in. :crazy:

[Ramius]

9. Glass Houses... stones... BIG ONES

[HopeHoops]

LOCUSTS EVEN! ---- McCain either REALLY wants to just get this over with or he's seriously lost.

[BlueIdaho]

12. Typical Rovian Nonsense...

Claim the Democrats are doing what the republicans are in fact guilty of. Somehow I think its time for them to pay the piper.

[yellowcanine]

13. Sounds like your basic pot kettle black situation.

[Window]

15. K/R.

:kick:

[sohndrsmith]

16. tell me what i just heard on msnbc regarding Obama is not a big deal...

I've had the box on mute, so I wasn't really payng adequate attention, but D. Schuster (sp?) just finished interviewing a fairly well-known journalist (who's name escapes me right at this moment, but he is either from NYT, WP or that equivalent 'stature', if there is such a thing any more) and they were discussing tens of thousands of dollars seemingly "illegally" (?) donated to Obama from small, online transactions under possibly fictitious, fraudulent names and/or addresses - even creatively, comical ones.... to the tune of as much as 17K that Obama's campaign is now implementing methods to give the funds back (which might be tough if the names are, indeed, make-believe).

Does anyone think this issue will develop any weight? I'm starting to think not... but - I dunno.

The story got me a little squirrelly because JM/SP have just pivoted so transparently and obstructively on the "suddenly" significant issue of what other people did when Obama was in, "like, second grade!", the age Palin claims to have been when she first recalls (and remembers?) Biden speeches... which is ridiculous, inaccurate and waaayyy crazy. Note to Palin: Google is your friend and asset, unless you learn to use it or continue to ignore it.

Someone should remind Palin that Biden did not become a national figure until about - oh, the late 1980s or - whoa! - what a coincidence, exactly when her "mavericky" running-mate (the one with the 4 month stint of combat duty in his 22-year military career and the 60K tax free pension due to 100% disability determined prior to his flight status being reinstated.... ) was dealing with someone named... hm.... Keating...! Yeah, as a 23 year old journalism major (or recent grad of such) someone might wonder why she doesn't get this... or anything else related to politics, civics, history, english, grammar, detente, manners, or intellect... (limiting myself to the top ten for today).

Ignorance, in this case is bliss, I suppose...

The campaign memo went out to all staffers simultaneously - yesterday - it could not have been more painfully obvious without serious effort on their part, which is a major snafu.They're all (suddenly!) parroting the same nonsense that they could have cared less about a week, a month, two months ago... they just succeeded in losing the few thinking supporters they had left...

I did get a little concerned, though, about the possibility that someone could jump all over this contribution story and essentially paralyze Obama in his tracks while they pore over his contributions. That would not be fun. Hopefully they're too focused on racism and Ayers to even notice. Ugh.

McCain's strategies, history and ideas are dumb. All of 'em. Good strategy, like surviving airplane crashes, seem to be based purely on luck, not ability or skill... (John, you should have read the flight manuals instead of hitting the bars and hitting up the dancers). This would be a good strategy for life in general, as well as keeping the FEC from breathing down your neck.

McCain is natively and historically careless, naive and/or both. Someone so recklessly slipshod shouldn't be able to worm his way to the presidency because of anything other than being qualified and proving it. One of the candidates, and his winky running mate has not been able to do this, and I'm guessing this will not change. This is not "survival of the most manipulative"... or at least it shouldn't be.

[yardwork]

19. Thank you for your concern. I'm one of Obama's little contributors.

There are millions of us. We are legion. We are proud to contribute our mite to this historic election.

[GinaMaria]

22. smells funny

to pay online requires a credit card and a name to match, so a made up name would have difficulty giving money.

If it happened, it would likely be a right wing set up.


sounds like the cons are really banging the drums today.

[struggle4progress]

23. It's peanuts. There's no incentive whatsoever for a big donor to

break a large illegal contribution into hundreds of small contributions, because the big donor doesn't get credit for the donation: he can't (for example) approach the campaign and say I've given you $10K in $25 bits under the name of forty cartoon characters because the campaign won't want to have anything to do with him after that

Moreover, national campaigns are usually really touchy about this sort of thing: if it's obviously weird, they're gonna be suspicious of dirty tricks

So if there really is such a problem, it's probably at most few hundred pain-in-butt citizens who gave (say) $35 contributions on line and thought they were being clever by signing some bogus name. But in such a case, there will be some difficulty getting a credit card to work. So problematic electronic donations probably don't directly charge standard credit cards

If $17K is the ceiling, it's tiny compared to the campaign budget: the campaign, if all else fails, could simply sequester that amount of cash until the matter was resolved -- or could donate the questionable amount to some charity and let the illegal contributor deal with whatever the federal violation issue was

[raebrek]

21. That is amazing

When did they finally fill all the seats of the FEC?

Raebrek!!!

[chupacabranation]

24. Quick, someone w/campaign finance knowledge...

What's the maximum contribution an individual can make, again?

[Winnscott]

25. Another McScandal

They continue to pile up.

[OakCliffDem]

26. Kick