Free Republic

Sacramento -- Attorneys representing the alleged victims in a suspected fraud scheme involving millions of dollars in campaign funds from as many as 400 candidates, officeholders and committees asked the commission that oversees political fundraising in California to make urgent changes in regulations to ensure funding for their political work. The Fair Political Practices Commission held a special meeting Friday to hear from clients of Kinde Durkee, a campaign treasurer for the hundreds of politicians and political organizations, nearly all of them Democratic. Durkee was arrested Sept. 2 by the FBI and charged with stealing or misappropriating $670,000 from the...

[...]Take AT&T, for example. The telecommunications giant is pushing for the supercommittee to increase wireless spectrum, reform corporate tax and minimize government regulation. The company, which is also in the midst of fighting for its merger with T-Mobile, bundled $71,000 for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee through the first six months of this year and $20,750 last year for Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who co-chairs the supercommittee and runs the campaign arm that is charged with maintaining a Senate majority next November. In fact, Murray received the most bundled contributions of any individual supercommittee lawmaker since last year, also taking...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she was “wiped out” by Kinde Durkee, a well-connected California Democratic political operative who served as treasurer for hundreds of state, local and federal campaign committees.Durkee was arrested by the FBI on Sept. 2 on allegations of fraud surrounding the diversion of more than $670,000 from the reelection committee for a California state assemblyman, and a growing list of California Democrats, including Feinstein and Reps. Susan Davis and Loretta Sanchez, now appear to victims as well.“I was wiped out too, we don’t know how much,” said Feinstein, indicating the losses in campaign funds could run...

Delaware Man Admits Illegal Campaign Contributions by Henry Reske June 10, 2011 A Delaware man has pleaded guilty to illegally funneling more than $200,000 to political campaigns. Those benefitting from the illegal contributions apparently include the failed presidential campaign of now Vice President Joe Biden... snip Prosecutors said the campaign finance scheme involved fake fundraisers, free alcohol for candidates and supporters at events... snip The complaint does not allege any wrongdoing by the candidates and does not identify them by name. However, the Post reported that dates and other information in the court documents “strongly suggest that Biden and Sen....

About two weeks before he left office, Gov. Bill Richardson's staff handed over his office's records to the State Records Center and Archives. But there was one condition. Richardson agreed to turn over his records under the condition that for the next eight years, only four people would have access or be able to grant access to the documents — Richardson himself; his chief of staff, Brian Condit; general counsel Justin Miller; and scheduler Janis Hartley. Richardson's action is allowed under a state law passed in 1967, Records Center Director Sandra Jaramillo said ... Attempts to reach Richardson and his...

One of the more amusing examples of Left wing's hysteria over Christine O'Donnell is her January 28, 2009, meeting with a potential donor at Lone Star Steakhouse at 307 Rocky Run Parkway, Wilmington, Delaware, where the bill totalled $22.16. For some reason, this one trivial expense has tongues flapping. For liberal elitist expense accounts from New York City and Inside-the-Beltway, $22.16 is not enough for two people to eat. Therefore -- they wildly speculate without foundation -- O'Donnell had to be eating alone, not meeting with a potential donor as a "fund-raising expense." (Of course, not everyone present at a...

See for yourself in this video: CNN videotaped the inside of the now-famous Christine O'Donnell townhouse used as O'Donnell's campaign headquarters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfzbGVJ2tCE

Christine O’Donnell says Joe Biden is behind campaign fund misuse report. More specifically, O’Donnell is implying that Biden is sending the FBI after her in order to handle the alleged investigation that’s been started on her use of campaign contributions. Two days, ago the AP ran a story claiming O’Donnell was being criminally investigated, but O’Donnell herself has disproved that misleading report by asserting on the same day that no authorities ever contacted her regarding the AP story. Yesterday, O’Donnell fought back by pointing the finger at the vice president, saying that the whole rumor of a criminal investigation was...

RINO conspiracy? Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation of Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell to determine if the former Senate candidate broke the law by using campaign money to pay personal expenses, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation.The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to protect the identity of a client who has been questioned as part of the probe. The case, which has been assigned to two federal prosecutors and two FBI agents in Delaware, has not been brought before a grand jury…At least two former campaign workers have alleged that she...

Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation of Delaware Republican Christine O'Donnell to determine if the former Senate candidate broke the law by using campaign money to pay personal expenses, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to protect the identity of a client who has been questioned as part of the probe. The case, which has been assigned to two federal prosecutors and two FBI agents in Delaware, has not been brought before a grand jury. Matt Moran, O'Donnell's former campaign manager, did not immediately respond...

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A former Marine turned Republican congressional candidate is raising campaign money by challenging all comers to a shooting contest.

Based on a single, poorly sourced article in Think Progress - a rabidly partisan blog that is an offshoot of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress - President Obama laid into Republicans for allowing "foreign money" to be used to fund campaigns against him, specifically, dues money from foreign countries paid to the Chamber of Commerce. The problem? The story by Think Progress is (not surprisingly) almost certainly untrue. But a closer examination shows that there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and...

Andrew Young’s hero was an inspiring Southern orator and a paragon of Christian virtue. He was a pillar of his community. Then he was photographed in compromising circumstances, outed as an adulterer and beset by a scandal that destroyed his career. “They caught me, Andrew,” the Rev. Bob Young confessed to his heartbroken teenage son. The traumatized son later went on to subordinate his life to John Edwards’s political career, becoming one of his most trusted aides. And he allowed his own reputation to be ruined in a vain effort to save Mr. Edwards from embarrassment. How much of that...

...strangely, tort reform is not part of any of the Democratic party bills revising the United States health care system. [Obama] told the American Medical Association that he is "not advocating caps on malpractice awards." Even though they might significantly lower medical costs, Obama said he believes caps "can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed." That might very be the real reason, but there is a major question-mark that arises when you look at the campaign contributions from the 2008 presidential election.... If you look at the latest Federal Election Commission (released 7/13/09), you see that President Obama...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Fred Thompson, a newcomer to the Republican presidential contest, raised $9.3 million in the past three months and has $7 million in the bank, his campaign said Thursday. The former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" television actor has raised $12.7 million since he began exploring an entry into the race in June. All the money is for the primary contests. His campaign said he had 80,000 donors, 22,000 of them contributing through the Internet.

Why, just as the investigation into Clinton campaign corruption was hitting pay dirt, did Fred Thompson suddenly strike a deal with Democrats to shift the hearings into a softer, gentler discussion of legislative changes? Consider the momentum building: 1. Venerable Gore, now wisely hiring criminal lawyers, was shown to be fund-raising from federal property for his own campaign, which forced Janet Reno to shake up Justice's hapless bureaucracy - in hope of evading the law's mandate to seek court appointment of a real prosecutor. 2. Our rogue president, after selling face time to an engaging hustler for $300,000, was shown...

A few weeks ago, Linnie Frank Bailey, a 51-year-old self-described "older soccer mom" in Corona, Calif., and Isaac Burbank, a 20-year-old mechanical engineering student at Colorado State University, both did something for the first time. They gave money to a political campaign -- $10 each to Sen. Barack Obama -- and they gave it over the Internet. About a third of the money Sen. Barack Obama raised in his record-setting haul of $32.8 million in the second quarter of this year came from donations made on the Internet, his campaign said. The Illinois Democrat's second-quarter fundraising haul of $32.8 million...

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee filed its report covering 2/1/2006-2/28/2006. The committee reports $3,101,719 in receipts and $2,496,317 in disbursements. Cash on hand totals $16,304,876. The DNC Services Corp./Dem. Nat'l Committee filed its report covering 2/1/2006-2/28/2006. The committee reports $6,208,145 in receipts and $4,183,133 in disbursements. Cash on hand totals $8,930,179. The National Republican Congressional Committee filed its report covering 2/1/2006-2/28/2006. The committee reports $5,394,460 in receipts and $4,324,877 in disbursements. Cash on hand totals $20,806,354. The Republican National Committee filed its report covering 2/1/2006-2/28/2006. The committee reports $10,877,419 in receipts and $8,890,906 in disbursements. Cash on hand totals $40,874,828.

Since the beginning of 2005 Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign committee has reported raising over $20 million from individuals around the country. Small contributions of $200 or less do not have to be itemized. For itemized donors aggregating over $200 the top state breakdown is as follows: New York: 6,444 donations - $5.63 million California: 1,639 donations - $1.54 million DC: 697 donations - $603,360 Illinois: 553 donations - $554,088 New Jersey: 526 donations - $543,305 Texas: 606 donations - $538,855 Since the beginning of 2001 Sen. Clinton has raised $31,178,474 from individuals. In the 2001-2002 cycle she raised $1,094,192 from...

Legislators use contributions for cars, memberships and sports tickets: Former state House Speaker Charlie DeWitt spent $19,000 to finish paying off a Jaguar. State Sen. Robert Adley spent thousands on a new wardrobe. More than 50 Louisiana legislators bought LSU football season tickets, most paying extra for some of the best seats in Tiger Stadium. The money came not out of legislatorsÂ’ pockets but from their supporters and special interests. The money came out of legislatorsÂ’ campaign accounts. Campaign contributors paid those expenses and a lot more in 2004, the latest year for which campaign finance reports are available. New...