Hey Whack......who is for Kerry anyway?
washingtonpost.com
Leads in Donation Unlisteds
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) narrowly lost the presidential fundraising battle to Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) in the first three months of the year. But he was far ahead of his rivals in one dubious category: the percentage of donors who did not list their employer, occupation or both.
To help police campaign financing and make it easier for the public to see the sources of a candidate's funding, the Federal Election Commission requires committees to include the name of an employer and occupation for each contributor in the mandatory disclosure reports.
In the report Kerry filed Tuesday, about a third of his contributors either had "information requested" or a blank line under the "occupation" heading. The value of their contributions was about $2 million, out of a total of $7 million raised through March 31.
Kerry press secretary Robert Gibbs said the campaign was actively trying to obtain the information and was not attempting to disguise its contributors. Campaign staffers, he said, had first combed previous FEC records to see if their donors had contributed to other candidates, hoping to find occupations and employers that way. Failing that, the campaign has sent letters to contributors asking for the information.
"The campaign is doing everything it can and is required to do to get that information as soon as possible," said Chris Lehane, Kerry's communications director. "It did not require a call from the press. We did it on our own."
As additional information on donors' identities becomes available, Gibbs said, staffers will add it to a category created Friday on the Kerry campaign Web site, along with the original first-quarter report.
Edwards's campaign, which returned $10,000 in donations from employees at an Arkansas law firm after one of them said her boss had promised to reimburse her -- which is prohibited by law -- pointed to its success in identifying donors. "We are proud that we have identified 95 percent of our donors," said press secretary Jennifer Palmieri. "That is a record we are proud of." |
