WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2007
A New Precedent For Campaign Cash
By Returning $850K Associated With Norman Hsu, Clinton Puts Pressure On Rivals
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"In any instances where a source of a bundler's income is in question, the campaign will take affirmative steps to verify its origin," Wolfson said.
Larry Noble, former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission, said Clinton raised the bar on how to respond to troublesome fundraising.
"At one time the standard was if a person is convicted of a crime I'll return the money; then it was if they are indicted," Noble said. "What we're seeing now is the Clinton campaign being very proactive about trying to get out in front of what experience has shown can be a very distracting story."
Aggressive vetting of bundlers, Noble said, "is a big step because, one, it's going to take resources and, two, it may well turn off or insult some fundraisers."
With the cost of campaigns increasing exponentially, candidates are under increasing pressure to rely on fundraisers, or money "bundlers," who help solicit money on their behalf. This election, money is even more important because several presidential candidates plan to forgo public financing.
Clinton has raised $52 million from individual contributors, second only to Obama who has raised $58 million.
"A great deal of fundraising comes from people who are established, have homes, people in the community," Catsimatidis said. "I'd say 99.9 percent. But there is that oddball that occurs once in a while. It happens and one has to be on the watch for that."
Last month, lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, who represented assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, was indicted on charges of conspiring to make more than $125,000 in illegal contributions to Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign. Fieger pleaded not guilty and authorities have said the Edwards campaign was unaware of the activity.
Edwards campaign spokesman Eric Schultz said the campaign will await the outcome of the case against Fieger before acting on the money he helped raise.
"From Day One, the campaign has taken their lead from and cooperated fully with the Department of Justice," Schultz said. "Once this prosecution concludes, if Geoffrey Fieger is found guilty, the campaign will donate all the money in question to charity."
He said the campaign, like Clinton's has also stepped up its vetting of fundraisers.
"We have always had an extensive vetting process for our raisers, but based on the Hsu revelations, and to err on the side of caution, we have begun doing criminal background checks as well," he said.
Obama has already given to charity money that Hsu contributed to his Senate campaign in 2004 and to his political action committee in 2005. Hsu did not assist Obama's presidential campaign but he helped host one fundraiser for Obama during his Senate run. Obama's campaign sent letters to donors potentially affiliated with Hsu, seeking assurances that the money they donated was their own.
Campaign spokesman Bill Burton said the campaign was not returning any money from those donors yet because it was still awaiting their response.
Obama has also given to charity about $37,000 in contributions to his Senate campaign and political action committee that were linked to Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who faces extortion and fraud charges related to an Illinois public pension fund. Rezko also raised tens of thousands of dollars for Obama's state legislative and Senate races. And while Obama has divested his campaign of money from some Rezko associates, he has kept money from others.
"We're constantly reviewing and updating our processes for vetting donations and donors, and we'll continue to do that," Burton said.
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Now let candidates of both parties return money given or raised by George Soros. The media found it easy to go after the Asian-American Hsu, but never mention that Soros has been convicted (2002) of insider trading in the takeover of the French bank Societe Generale.
Why is Soros'' money not tainted by his conviction, if Hsu''s money was dirtied by his failure to appear? Soros has "lawyered up" to avoid the consequences of his conviction by repeated appeals, but the verdict is there for any of his political beneficiaries to see. Of course, they prefer not to see this particular evidence of corruption, because they want Soros'' money.