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...And How Transparent Are the Republicans Being With Their Small Donors?
October 21, 2008 11:32 AM
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has been taking heat for not disclosing his small donors and for some questionable donations made to his campaign.
But looking through the RNC's new search engine, I mentioned earlier today, it's pretty weak. The only fields are first name, last name, and amount.
That means, as a search engine, it's fairly useless unless people have unique names, because you can't verify an address or employer.
So, as a Democratic operative points out, when you search "Joe Smith" you have no idea of knowing whether it's Joe Smith the Republican state representative in Missouri, Joe Smith who's on death row in Florida, Joe Smith of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Joe Smith who's a relief pitcher for the Mets, or Joe Smith the actor who played "Connie Hawkins" in the 1996 TV movie "Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault."
As for the McCain campaign's transparency, it's indisputable that it's better than the Obama campaign's when it comes to small donors.
But as Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic points out (HERE and HERE) the McCain search engine of small donors indicates that that campaign has some transparency issues -- and anonymous contributors -- as well.
To wit:
NAME CITY STATE ZIP CODE AMOUNT DATE
Anonymous Annandale VA 22003 $1.00 7/28/2008
Anonymous Annandale VA 22003 $25.00 5/8/2008
Anonymous Scottsdale AZ 85257 $25.00 8/26/2008
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $30.00 8/13/2008
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $20.00 1/18/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $0.10 1/29/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $5.00 1/30/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $6.00 1/30/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $1.00 2/28/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $0.01 3/2/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $10.00 3/6/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $5.00 3/6/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $7.25 3/21/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $1.00 3/21/2007
Anonymous, Anonymous Anonymous XX 99999 $20.00 3/21/2007
Zip code 99999?
They also have some contributors from Zip code 00000.
And, as Obama spox Ben LaBolt points out, the McCain campaign's donor database also contains "fraudulent contributors with names like ‘Jesus II’ –- we hope and expect that they will implement a rigorous review process like we have, to make sure their contributions are appropriate."
As Ambinder writes: "The point isn't that McCain is violating election law ... it's that, with hundreds of thousands of donors, compliance is just really not that easy. That foes for McCain ... but especially for Obama and his millions of donors. Both campaigns have full-time compliance staffs ... but it's tough for ten people to pour through millions of donors. ..."
Now, that all said, I still haven't heard a good reason as to why the Obama campaign isn't even trying to disclose these names, if even in the weak way the RNC is attempting, or the imperfect way the McCain campaign is.
- jpt
October 21, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (50)
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I think Obama should disclose his PLACE OF BIRTH and his REAL vault BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
He is an Illegal Alien, not qualified to run as President.
ABC Must report on this and expose the basis of the 6 yes SIX current civil suits filed against Osamabama to produce his Birth Certificate.
Osaamaba has produced 3, yes THREE variants of his Birth 'extract', all proven fakes or tampered with, which makes them INVALID, and in addition are NOT the actual Vault copies to prove place of Birth.
There are many Traitors out there today who are not upholding the US Constitution.
Dont prove yourself to be one of them.
Foxy.
Posted by: Foxy | Oct 24, 2008 11:32:32 AM
Open your eyes MIKE when you read and repeat information!
From Open Secrets:
Obama: Full Disclosure 92.4%, Incomplete 2.2%, None 5.5%
McCain: Full Disclosure 86.8%, Incomplete 3.1%, None 10.1%
..... is for MORE THAN $200 DONORS not small donors of which Obama has millions?
The facts I saw is that 80% of Obama donors go UNAMED!
Posted by: Sally Ann | Oct 21, 2008 11:51:44 PM
"it's tough for ten people to pour through millions of donors"
Another examples of OBAMA AUDACITY!
May I suggest that a part of the $ 150 million for Sept. be used to clean it up before it does become public?????
Posted by: Sally | Oct 21, 2008 11:47:33 PM
WHY NOT ASL OBAMA TO PLEASE MAKE THE SAME INFO AVAILABLE ABOUT HIS DONORS!
Show us you are not hiding anything. We can catch funny donations for McCain and check if they are returned. Since Obama is the one, we will be able to prove he has done no wrong as ABC wants to believe.
OBAMA IS SILENT BECAUSE HE CANNOT MAKE HIS DATABASE PUBLIC. THE PRESS IS COVERING. THIS WILL COME OUT AT SOME POINT.
THE PRESIDENCY IS WORTH A LIE OR CHEAT RIGHT?
Posted by: Sally Ann | Oct 21, 2008 11:35:23 PM
McCain released over a thousand pages of medical records. Obama? Obama released a one page check up, no medical records at all. And speaking of not releasing documents. Why has Obama sealed, SEALED his college records?
Posted by: Joe | Oct 21, 2008 11:22:17 PM
I think that anyone in the news business ought to have learned by now to take anything the RNC says with more than a grain of salt.
Posted by: Mike | Oct 21, 2008 8:21:32 PM
"As for the McCain campaign's transparency, it's indisputable that it's better than the Obama campaign's when it comes to small donors."
-------------------------------------
From Open Secrets:
Obama: Full Disclosure 92.4%, Incomplete 2.2%, None 5.5%
McCain: Full Disclosure 86.8%, Incomplete 3.1%, None 10.1%
So Jake, if it is indisputable Obama is worse on small donors, then I guess you mean to say that McCain isn't disclosing at all when it comes to large donors?
Posted by: Mike | Oct 21, 2008 8:14:45 PM
"A man who has nothing to hide, hides nothing."
That certianly explains the way in which McCain "released" his medical records.
Posted by: Jack | Oct 21, 2008 5:34:41 PM
They probably aren't releasing those names because they know if they have incomplete data like McCain, the Conservative media will infer those were donations from terrorists overseas.
Posted by: Sean Braisted | Oct 21, 2008 4:54:11 PM
"As for the McCain campaign's transparency, it's indisputable that it's better than the Obama campaign's when it comes to small donors."
Is that damning with faint praise intentional? "Yeah, it may be a big list of people named Anonymous Anonymous, but at least there's a list". The Obama campaign should put out a similar list with "we don't know" filled in for the name, and they would match the pristine standards of the McCain campaign.
Posted by: ExRepublican | Oct 21, 2008 2:46:09 PM
"I've donated a little over $100. I prefer to keep that information between me and the Obama campaign."
While I understand a desire for privacy, you should know that if you donate a penny to Obama, the FEC has to be notified.
The FEC has all these records, Obama is not hiding them.
They just haven't made donations under $200 public because there is no legal requirement and the task itself is enormous.
Posted by: Ryan C | Oct 21, 2008 2:26:41 PM
I posted a perfectly sound reason on your other thread. Perthaps Jake is trying to discourage donations from people who DON'T live in secure houses in secure neighborhoods with security alarms and someone always home. Those might be DEMOCRATS, right?
So let's go back to only encouraging campaign contributions from people who can list their business, or accountant's business, as their address, right?
Posted by: Tom J | Oct 21, 2008 2:20:36 PM
I've donated a little over $100. I prefer to keep that information between me and the Obama campaign.
It's very likely that if my information was released regardless of how much I donated (i.e. below $200), I would not have donated.
Of course, that's probably the goal of the Republicans. They don't want transparency (which the Obama campaign has actually been better at), no, they just want to supress donations.
What a joke they are.
Posted by: Russ | Oct 21, 2008 2:04:01 PM
A man who has nothing to hide, hides nothing. Open up the books, Obama.
Posted by: Joe | Oct 21, 2008 1:21:38 PM
There is no need to reveal donors info below $200...the average donor for O bama is $87.00...most of his donors are donors that do not give me a lot of money...this proves to you how much support he is getting....
O bama 08
Posted by: carl | Oct 21, 2008 1:02:51 PM
"CHECK OUT FOX NEWS WEB SITE MCCAIN IN LEADING IN TROOP SUPPORT 3-1,"
What a shock FoxNews lying.
The Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes campaign finance data, reports that a surge of donations for Mr. McCain in the final months he was able to accept campaign contributions moved him into the lead. By the end of August, Mr. McCain received $461,350 from military donors to $450,950 for Mr. Obama.
One of the interesting trends of the election was that anti-war candidates, not only Mr. Obama but also Ron Paul, were getting more support from the uniformed military than hawkish Mr. McCain. That remains the case. Mr. Obama received $340,400 from members of the uniformed service branches compared to $321,500 for Mr. McCain. Mr. Paul had taken in $213,000 from uniformed service members.
The report also shows that Mr. Obama also is ahead of Mr. McCain in military donors with overseas addresses, both those working for the Department of Defense as well as members of the uniformed services. A total of $74,650 came in for Mr. Obama from those posted overseas to $16,600 for Mr. McCain.
Posted by: Ryan C | Oct 21, 2008 12:54:11 PM
At least we can see where McCain's donor problem lie. That's a giant step in transparency, even if imperfect. I don't expect any campaign to not have problems, I just think it's helpful to know about them. And telling when they won't share.
What's with the $.01 contributions?
Posted by: MayBee | Oct 21, 2008 12:51:31 PM
CHECK OUT FOX NEWS WEB SITE MCCAIN IN LEADING IN TROOP SUPPORT 3-1, CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT. OUR TROOPS THAT ARE FIGHTING THIS WAR BELIEVE MCCAIN CAN AND WILL END THIS THE RIGHT WAY. WHERES MSNBC AND CNN? THEY WONT REPORT THIS
Posted by: RICK | Oct 21, 2008 12:48:45 PM
God help us if Obama is elected!
Posted by: Carol | Oct 21, 2008 12:43:49 PM
I think Obama should disclose all his donors.
Posted by: Yes! He should. | Oct 21, 2008 12:41:57 PM
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