Re Dems..This might be another embarrassment~~The Early Word: Dubious Campaign Donations
October 18, 2007, 8:59 am
thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com
By Kate Phillips and Ariel Alexovich
Four Democratic presidential candidates — Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama – are named among a list of leading party members who have accepted donations from the law firm of Milberg Weiss, which last year was indicted on bribery and fraud charges. The firm denies the charges.
Mike McIntire of The Times writes:
“The reluctance of Democrats to shut off the cash spigot, even in the face of scandal, underscores how the pressure to raise money creates marriages of political interests that can be difficult to break up.”
Many of us are still mining those third-quarter reports that were filed with the Federal Election Commission earlier this week, spotting trends and examining expenses of the campaigns.
The Wall Street Journal analyzes one such trend — the growth of bundlers (think Norman Hsu, the disgraced donor whose $800,000 haul the Clinton campaign was forced to return). With a graphic titled “The Bundling Boom,” the Journal’s Brody Mullins finds:
The number of bundlers working for presidential campaigns has nearly doubled since the last election, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from campaigns and watchdog groups. The volume of cash they funnel to individual campaigns, as a percentage of all money raised, has soared as well. Bundled donations account for more than one-quarter of presidential campaign contributions this year, up from 8% in the 2000 race.
The bulk of the entertainment industry’s money is going to Senators Clinton and Obama. The Los Angeles Times reports that together they raised more than $5 million in the first three quarters of the year from Hollywood types, not just from celebrities but executives.
“There are two different types of Hollywood money,” said campaign finance expert Larry Makinson. “The star money is being split between Clinton and Obama. But there is a whole other Hollywood. Their political fingerprint is a lot different.”
Mr. Obama’s reports this time around are incomplete, with details missing on where its campaign travel and expense dollars are going, writes The Times’s Jeff Zeleny.
Ron Paul’s campaign donors have some of the most interesting jobs. His financial disclosure forms show he’s accepted checks from “a circus clown, diet guru, exotic dancer, monetary architect and slacker in chief.”
Calendar Chaos When to drop those millions of dollars — whether in television advertising or direct mailings as the contests loom later this year — has become quite the question for campaigns, given the caucus chaos going on in Iowa and the still unsettled landscape in New Hampshire.
The Times’s Jim Rutenberg ponders the effects of the extremely early primary season. With Iowa’s Republican’s setting Jan. 3 as their caucus date, he writes that voters still in the holiday spirit might be turned off by the legions of negative campaign ads that are almost certain to be beamed into their homes:
“It is uncharted territory, with strategists for the major campaigns struggling to understand what the early schedule — and the uncertainty — will mean for the traditional rhythms and strategies of the crucial weeks when many voters make up their minds and cast the initial votes.”
There’s another profile of that man of the hour, William M. Gardner, the New Hampshire secretary of state who’s responsible for setting the New Hampshire primary date, this one from local paper the Union Leader.
Some Iowa Democrats are urging state party leaders to move up their caucus from Jan. 14 to match the Republicans’ Jan. 3 date.
Light at Night Mr. Obama dropped by Jay Leno’s couch last night and took some swings at Vice President Dick Cheney and Mrs. Clinton, who he reiterated has not yet won the Democratic nomination. “Hillary is not the first politician in Washington to declare ‘Mission Accomplished’ a little too soon,” Mr. Obama joked.
Democrats Capturing the youth vote is a cornerstone of Mr. Obama’s campaign, but the Illinois senator invoked a T.V. character most 18- to 30-year olds are too young to remember. Mr. Obama mocked his own big ears by telling an Iowa crowd recently: “I look like Opie.”
He is to receive the endorsement today of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
Mrs. Clinton reached out to women voters in Manchester, N.H. yesterday by sharing story after story about being a busy working mom, writes the Boston Globe.
“Until now, Clinton had said little on the campaign trail about raising her daughter, Chelsea, now 27. But at the YWCA in Manchester on Tuesday, as she unveiled a $1 billion family leave proposal, she told story after story about baby Chelsea getting sick or crying inconsolably.”
Bill Richardson promotes his one-point plan (Get out) for Iraq, in an online piece at the Huffington Post.
Republicans Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic is reporting that Rudy Giuliani has scored the endorsement of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Mr. Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson all proposed asking Congress to lower the corporate tax rate in their remarks to the Club for Growth in Washington yesterday, but they outlined different Social Security plans.
Finally, Republican Iowa voters still think Mr. Giuliani isn’t conservative enough. Fred Thompson has a new spot on some Web sites touting his conservative credentials, on the eve of a Values Voters conference this weekend.
Campaign trail roundup:
* Joe Biden campaigns in Cherokee, Laurens, Lohrville, Sheldon and Storm Lake, Iowa.
* Bill Richardson delivers a policy speech in Des Moines and speaks about Iraq in Nevada, Iowa.
* Hillary Clinton participates in a health care forum at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington.
* Mitt Romney holds a town hall meeting at Applewood Pancake House in Pawleys Island, S.C. Later, he visits Florence, Spartanburg |
