You may want to start calling him Slick Johnny. Tsk, tsk, what would John McCain say?
story.news.yahoo.com
Kerry Raised $878K Before Soft Money Ban
By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Federal tax records show presidential hopeful John Kerry's political action committee raised about $878,000 in soft money in the month before a ban on contributions from corporations and labor unions and unlimited donations from any source.
The donations included big checks from corporations and lawyers, according to reports posted Wednesday on the Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites)'s Web site.
Among the major donors listed in the Massachusetts senator's nonfederal political action committee reports are Chicago lawyer Robert Clifford and Data International Group chairman Patrick McGovern, who each gave $50,000. Miami lawyer Milton Ferrell, who donated $29,000. Several lawyers and corporate executives gave $25,000 each, according to an analysis by Political Money Line, an Internet service that tracks campaign finance.
The campaign finance law that took effect Nov. 6 bars federal officeholders such as Kerry from raising soft money, which includes PAC contributions of more than $5,000 per year from individuals and donations of any size from corporations and labor unions.
The IRS reports identify the sources of several soft money contributions given before the ban took effect: $10,000 from the Katenberg Family Trust in Los Angeles; $18,000 from California-based Ameriquest Capital Corp.; $15,000 from the Klein Financial Corp., also based in California; and $10,000 from Fightertown Inc. in Miami.
The law also required federal officeholders and candidates to spend any soft money connected to them.
Kerry's pre-election report showed about $83,665 in spending from Oct. 1-Oct. 16, the period covered. That included $40,000 to the Democrat Party in early-primary state Iowa.
An amended post-election report filed in April for Oct. 17 to Nov. 25 detailed $847,614 in spending during that period.
That included contributions to candidates and party committees in states with early presidential primaries, including $39,650 to the New Hampshire Democratic Party, $9,600 to the New Hampshire House Caucus and $3,000 to the South Carolina Democratic Party.
The posting of Kerry's PAC filings come as his presidential campaign tracks down missing employer information for dozens of donors in a first-quarter campaign finance report he filed with the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites).
Kerry's campaign was missing the most donor employer information among nine Democratic hopefuls filing reports with the FEC on April 15. It was looking for employer information for contributors responsible for nearly $1.8 million.
Campaign manager Jim Jordan said the campaign now has employer and occupation information for more than 90 percent of the donors.
"The delay was due to the rather incredible number of contributions that came in in the last two weeks of the reporting period," Jordan said.
The FEC requires campaigns to make a good-faith effort to get employer and occupation information from their donors. |
