Presidential-Race.net

Untraceable donations via prepaid credit cards - one candidate has found a loop-hole that may be used to evade limits on how much an individual is allowed to give.

Who is it? Take a guess then check out the Washington Post link; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/28/AR2008102803413_pf.html.

I’m just surprised this hasn’t been revealed by the mainstream news organizations (again!).

As reported by Political Intelligence of Boston.com, many of the Super Delegates who could well decide the Democratic presidential nominee have already been courted with campaign contributions by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

"While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials serving as Super Delegates have received about $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years," the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics reported 14-February-2008.

Obama’s political action committee has doled out more than $694,000 to Super Delegates since 2005, the study found, and of the 81 (Super Delegates) who had announced their support for Obama, 34 had received donations totaling $228,000.

Clinton’s political action committee has distributed about $195,000 to Super Delegates, and only 13 of the 109 who had announced for her have received money, totaling about $95,000.

So Obama has cumulatively outspent Clinton 2.4-to-1 on donating to supporting Super Delegates, but on a per Super Delegate basis, Clinton has exceeded Obama’s expenditure by $600 per person. In any case, a bit dishonest if you ask me - as close to legally buying a vote; legal, but dishonest.

Take a look at the video which describes the "invisible" battle for Super Delegate support.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign said Monday it will return $850,000 in donations raised by Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, who is under federal investigation for allegedly violating election laws.

Clinton, D-N.Y., previously had planned only to give to charity $23,000 she received from Hsu for her presidential and senatorial campaigns and to her political action committee, HillPac.

The FBI is investigating whether Hsu paid so-called straw donors to send campaign contributions to Clinton and other candidates, a law enforcement official said Monday.

"In light of recent events and allegations that Mr. Norman Hsu engaged in an illegal investment scheme, we have decided out of an abundance of caution to return the money he raised for our campaign," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said in a statement Monday night. "An estimated 260 donors this week will receive refunds totaling approximately $850,000 from the campaign."

Wolfson said the Clinton campaign also will vigorously review its fundraisers, including thorough criminal background checks, in the future. "In any instances where a source of a bundler’s income is in question, the campaign will take affirmative steps to verify its origin," he said.

The amount that the campaign identified as raised by Hsu would make him one of her top fundraisers. During the first six months of this year, her presidential campaign raised $52 million from individual contributors, second to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who raised $58.5 million.

Since 2004, Hsu has donated $260,000 to Democratic Party groups and federal candidates, and raised hundreds of thousands of additional dollars. He was regarded as a top party fundraiser until recent reports surfaced that he was wanted on a warrant in California in connection with a 1991 grand theft charge.

Federal authorities are looking into whether Hsu leaned on investors to contribute to political candidates after paying them big earnings from a shady business venture he was running, the law enforcement official said. Such a scam — using conduit contributors known as straw donors — is a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which limits how much money individuals can give to candidates and political committees.

The FBI may be looking at other potential charges as well, according to the law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

In addition to the $260,000 he contributed to federal candidates, Hsu also contributed at least $330,000 to state Democratic candidates and state party committees and ballot initiatives during the 2004 and 2006 election cycles. Among the state officials who received money were New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Both have said they would divest their campaigns of the donations.

Additionally, last week Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said he would donate nearly $40,000 in contributions, and Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said he had donated a $1,000 contribution to a charity that helps soldiers.

The purpose of Hsu’s business venture was unclear. The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that it was an investment pool that had recently drawn the suspicion of associates who questioned its legality.

An attorney for Hsu did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Hsu remained hospitalized in Grand Junction, Colo., where he has been since last week after failing to show up for a California court hearing. It was unclear when he might be returned to California to face the felony theft case.

Hsu pleaded no contest in 1991 to a grand theft charge that accused him of defrauding investors of $1 million. He was facing up to three years in prison when he skipped town before his sentencing in 1992. He finally surrendered to the arrest warrant Aug. 31, but disappeared before last week’s hearing where he was expected to turn over his passport and ask a judge to cut his $2 million bail in half.

Wolfson said the Clinton campaign was "unaware of Mr. Hsu’s decade-plus old warrant," despite what he described as a thorough review of public records.

Since Thursday, Hsu has been at the Colorado hospital, when he was taken from an eastbound Amtrak train for treatment of an undisclosed ailment. He’d failed to show up for the hearing a day earlier. He is expected to be taken to the Mesa County Jail in Colorado to await extradition proceedings in state court once he is well enough to leave the hospital.

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The whole story can be found at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070910/ap_on_el_pr/democratic_fundraiser

Doing so would put him at a major financial disadvantage against well-funded rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

"We have not made a final decision, but we are doing what’s necessary should we decide to opt into the matching fund system," McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said.

The FEC decision merely means that McCain has met the requirements to receive some amount of money - he could be elegible to receive about $6 million.

The one-time front-runner for the GOP nomination set out to raise $100 million or more this year and crafted a budget based on that assumption.  But the contributions failed to materialize.  $25 million was raised, and $23 million was used over the first 6 months of 2007.

But the money didn’t come in as expected and campaign spending was exorbitant. In the first six months of the year, the Arizona senator blew through $23 million of $25 million raised, a figure that didn’t include outstanding debt. All but broke by July, McCain’s campaign said it was seriously considering taking public matching funds and estimated that he could be eligible to receive about $6 million.  McCain has overhauled his national campaign, laid off dozens of staffers, installed new leadership and has refocused the campaign strategy on three states, Iowa, New Hampshire and >South Carolina.

Yes - they’re all in it to use money to potentially get the inside track for their favorite…and some are hedging their bets with multiple donations to different candidates.  Here is a sampling based-off the Federal Election Commission filings, organized by Candidate.  Enjoy.

Sam Brownback - $500 from Pat Boone

Hillary Rodham Clinton - $4,600 from Danny DeVito, $4,600 from Paul Newman

Chris Dodd - $4,600 from Paul Newman

John Edwards - $500 from Oliver Stone

Rudy Giuliani - $4,600 from Donald Trump

Dennis Kucinich - $2,300 from Larry Flynt

Barack Obama - $2,300 from George Clooney, $2,300 from Hugh Hefner, $2,300 from Halle Berry, $4,600 from Paul Newman, $1,000 from Oliver Stone

Bill Richardson - $4,600 from Bette Midler, $2,300 from Paul Newman

Mitt Romney -  - $250 from Pat Boone