You got that right.
Posted on 05/26/2008 6:23:31 PM PDT by SJackson
Not because of the amount, but rather because of the sheer number of individual transactions. It creates a database of rows and columns too large for FEC bureaucrats to open on their computers. Because they apparently don’t have Microsoft Excel 2007 or something.
Anyway, that’s interesting news in light of earlier stories about small-money contributions to the Obama campaign ruining transparency in political contributions. See, any contributor giving less than $200 doesn’t have to report a name or anything to the campaign for reporting to the FEC. These contributors are, essentially, anonymous.
Back in February Obama already had some 155,000 of these under-$200 contributions totally some $31 million.
That’s a lot of anonymous money. Too much, if you ask me. If some rich radical (like maybe one of Obama’s Palestinian buddies?) wanted to funnel millions into Obama’s campaign without the source of those millions being known those $200 contributions would be a good way to do it.
As for Obama’s big-money fundraising in general, I’d note that historically Republicans almost always out-raise Democrats when it comes to campaign money. But that fundraising advantage has hardly guaranteed the GOP victory. Obama may be rolling in the dough, but he’s still a naive, inexperienced, far-to-the-left Senator campaigning for an office that a) hasn’t been won by a Senator since JFK and b) hasn’t been one by a Democrat who campaigned as a liberal since LBJ.
i think that was lay on his wife, but no takers
bump
That’s right. So - for all intents and purposes - there is no FEC during this election cycle.
Boy, does this open the door wide for abuse!
You got that right.
You're right. Any contributions from individuals through ActBlue, Moveon.org, etc. are remitted along with a detailed list of the contributors, regardless of the amount.
Furthermore, while the law doesn't require disclosure for contributions under $200, if they aggregate more than $200 they are fully reportable, from dollar one.
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