Is Obama's campaign piggy bank a murky shade of sneakiness? By allowing donors to use prepaid credit cards, which are for the most part untraceable, the Obama campaign could be allowing donors to dodge limits or hide a donor's identity. That combined with a huge chunk of donations being given online, basic security measures to stop illegal or anonymous money from hitting the campaign account are nonexistent. The campaign's solution is to take the money now, and study the list for illegal donations or discrepancies later.
The campaign says the FEC rules don't require screening of the money before it's been accepted, but their methods seem problematic. Recent filings have included donations from the likes of "Doodad Pro." The biggest problem seems to be the prepaid cards, which makes it impossible to check for any of the identity or contribution limits, as well as whether the money is coming from a foreign source, a problem they've faced all campaign. An investigation of the money situation was prompted in part by a $174,800 donation from one person listed in a FEC report — the limit is $2,300. Problematic in itself, but made worse by the fact that the person didn't even do it — someone else was using her name.
This can't be the campaign finance reform Obama's in favor of — can it?
Opening Ceremony
NARS
Chloﾎ
well someone had to pay for that million dollar tripe that was on the other night, so Doodad Pro, you tha man.
1Doodad Pro is totally legitimate. I looked him up on facebook.
2When will we see a post about McCain's questionable donations?
3I am not sure I get the allegation about prepaid credit cards. You can't trace them. So was the Obama campaign supposed to say, "thanks but no thanks" to donations from prepaid credit cards?
Also, please don't forget that Obama hasn't been the only financially shady one during this election season.
4"Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.
The Obama organization said its extensive review has ensured that the campaign has refunded any improper contributions, and noted that Federal Election Commission rules do not require front-end screening of donations."
I don't see how this is a huge scandal. If they examining the donations and returning improper donations, then I don't see what the big deal is.
5I think it wouldn't be a big deal if the campaign didn't deposit first, ask questions later. Its not as easy to refund as it is to send back. And with the end only a few days away, they are going to spend some money that is questionable.
6I still really want to know when we will see a post about Mccain's questionable donations.
7Is McCain allowed to accept donations at this time? I thought that accepting public financing meant he couldn't after he became the official Republican candidate.
8Kranky, yes he is. He has a limit on how much he can spend, but of course his campaign still relies on fundraising and donations.
9If you look on his website, you'll see that they are indeed asking for contributions.
10Yep, I know for a fact McCain is accepting donations. My dad's a pretty strong Dem [he's never voted GOP in a presidential election], and he got a donation solicitation in the mail from McCain's campaign yesterday. There's a lot I *could* say about the letter that came with the request...but it seems kind of desperate.
11Liliblu, it's over here.
Krank, I think technically the donations McCain is soliciting are technically given to the RNC. They can spend it to help him get elected within certain guidelines.
12So my little itty bitty donation went to the RNC which probably covered to cost of Palin's panty hose.
13Isn't there a way to block a donation over the limit. We went to the moon and figured out how to wipe whole cities off the map I think with a little tinkering we can figure this one out too.
14That's what is so strange about this country. We can do all of that cool stuff and yet we still can't figure out how to get voting machines to work correctly on election day. I know that's off topic but it's ridiculous.
15Hey thanks everyone! Clearly, I am feeling too lazy today to look into things myself. I learn so much reading stuff on this site.
Seems like all the reporting on donation fraud has come from the Obama side, I haven't heard anything about McCain's (as noted). I'm assuming this is because Obama is breaking fundraising records all over the place. I hadn't heard anything about McCain's infractions.
16Kranky, here's a Chicago Tribune article about a verrrry fishy $70,000-in-one-pop donation made to McCain by an extremely questionable donor:
teamsugar.com/group/1950914/blog/2441672
17While I think it's important to evaluate both, it pains me that every story about one is greeted with comments asking where the corresponding story is about the other.
18TS i was just about to write after finally reading all the comments.
All i know is voting is just around the corner and this will all be over soon!
19I posted yesterday on McCain receiving massive donations(including over $70,00 donated in ONE DAY) from a questionable individual named Shi Sheng Hao. I guess because it's McCain and not Obama, we don't need to know about this. Instead we're subjected to 'blogs' like these.
20Thank you, Jude.
21No prob, lady
22It's a blog on a social networking site, not the Economist, folks. I'm more interested in the story at hand than trying to point a finger at the other guy.
If they have their website set up such that it won't let my donation go through if I haven't filled in one of the mandatory fields, how hard is it to add a little code so that if you type in 173,000, it doesn't go through?
23TS: Read Citizen's first line of this blog. Are you A-OK with that?
And you're right, this is social networking site.
24Jude-
Thanks for the link. Yeah, that certainly sounds fishy.
I agree that the fundraising issue is concerning and seems to be an issue on both sides, but I simply can not rouse myself to care about one. more. issue. in this election. I've picked my causes, and I'm done.
There is one thing that DOES bother me though... I do not like how we have gotten into picking over the records of private citizens. I now know WHY too much information about that Chinese guy as well as Joe the Plumber. I'm not surprised that people are donating under a fake name.
25Why wouldn't I be? It's not my opinion, but if I don't like the way the story is worded I can skip it or read about it elsewhere.
26Or I could leave a comment! I just think we should resist the urge to talk about whether the site is biased or whether the other guy did it, too instead of just discussing this story.
27Ok.
Look, my point is that if McCain's donors aren't scrutinized, why should the issue of Obama's be hashed and rehashed every 2.5 seconds? The bias is overwhelming and I see alot of bitterness coming out and not only from my side of the fence.
28So McCain isnt accepting donations via pre-paid credit cards?
29*WHY=WAY
30[When will we see a post about McCain's questionable donations?]=
Exactly -- McCain is playing defense and throwing the kitchen sink right about now. The Obama camp has said that they have refunded many and all donations that were frivolous or which they felt were fraudulent.
And pre-paid credit cards -- if there is no way to check how are they suppose to know -- and how are they suppose to be held responsible for it.
31"And pre-paid credit cards -- if there is no way to check how are they suppose to know -- and how are they suppose to be held responsible for it."
Exactly.
32[So my little itty bitty donation went to the RNC which probably covered to cost of Palin's panty hose.]
33The dev department (at my job) says adding in the code would probably take a couple of hours -- but of course they would have to look at the code first to give you a more accurate time quote
34Citizen is an equal opportunity offender.
35It seems to me that funneling massive amounts of money through prepaid credit cards would be costly and ultimately traceable. You'd have to have boatloads of cards - which means that stores or websites would have records of one or two buyers with huge orders. Then someone has to sit and make the donations online and again, ultimately they would be traceable at least to the point of origin because any company/store that has the cards in its possession to sell would have the card numbers recorded. The cards can't be stolen or they wouldn't be activated. You probably could erase the original sale somehow, but this is an awful lot of effort for a big money donor.
It seems an amateurish, or very new to the game of questionable donations, way of doing things.
But we know that Obama is pure evil so I'm sure the time and effort to cheat this way would be worth it to him.
36Stephley P.I. for president!!
37You forgot stephley that in addition to being pure evil Obama arranged for the prepaid credit cards to be made of ground up kittens.
38
39Kittens to grind up, money to steal, terrorists to entertain, and still has time to read to the kids!
40
41Yeah, but he reads 'The Anorchist's Cookbook' to the kids so that's not neccessarily a good thing.
42He also has time to teach kindergartners about sex. He is a busy guy, not sure how he will fit this all in and be President if he is elected. At least he can take grinding kitties up to make prepaid debit cards off his to do list if elected.
43
44First, CitizenSugar, thanks for posting the article.
Um, I read about the campaign donation thing a few days ago. I think they're also investigating RNC too after DNC requested a full-on investigation for their campaign donors for McCain/Palin. I think I read this on comcast.net news though, article done by AP. I heard also (I've not been to McCain website) that the McCain/Palin released like an accounting of their campaign funds. And that DNC has been reviewing them and finds some discrepancies or it's somewhat beyond the limit or something like that. I need to find that article now.
I don't know, I think they need to fix some elements for future campaigning. Faulty voting machines, donation regulations and so on.
45The Anarchist's Cookbook is actually a pretty interesting little book. Entertaining and thoughtful all at once.
I think as long as the rules aren't enforced in a strict manner, anybody would take advantage of them in terms of donations. They should probably create a limit on private fund raising in the future in order to level the playing field.
46What people are not aware of is, in some communities people are unable to get checking accounts and bank cards. So, they get prepaid cards to use for transactions online etc....so what they could essentially be doing is opening up the donor base to those who are unable to pay in no other way besides cash. You can get prepaid cards for the check cashing places in many large cities, where there is a very diverse population.
47What people are not aware of is, in some communities people are unable to get checking accounts and bank cards. So, they get prepaid cards to use for transactions online etc....so what they could essentially be doing is opening up the donor base to those who are unable to pay in no other way besides cash. You can get prepaid cards for the check cashing places in many large cities, where there is a very diverse population.
48If you look at almost any post regardless of it it's McCain or Obama related there will be a direct call for the other candidate to be called out and to think that it's not going to be means that you haven't been on citizensugar lately. It's American politics and we live in a primarily "two party world" so many people want to see both sides of a story. Donations from private citizens are donations regardless if it's funneled through a 3rd party or not. If the roles were reversed and McCain was getting donations hands over fist would could exspect the Obama campaign to try and raise doubt about his finaces as well. It's almost human nature that when your getting beat you have to find a way to win even if it's to say the other guys cheating!
49"And prepaid credit cards" I also think that preventing people from paying by prepaid credit card is also on the same lines as voter suppression a lot of people who are stated to be in the "democratic demographic" ( the youth, the poor, some minorities) that would vote for Obama don't have lines of credit, so a pre paid card is useful
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