The Blog @ Spolitics

The Obama Campaign’s Shady Fundraising Tactics

The Washington Post lowers the boom (finally!) on the Obama campaign for aiding and abetting illegal donations through their website.

Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor’s identity, campaign officials confirmed. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

The Obama organization said its extensive review has ensured that the campaign has refunded any improper contributions, and noted that Federal Election Commission rules do not require front-end screening of donations.

In recent weeks, questionable contributions have created headaches for Obama’s accounting team as it has tried to explain why campaign finance filings have included itemized donations from individuals using fake names, such as Es Esh or Doodad Pro. Those revelations prompted conservative bloggers to further test Obama’s finance vetting by giving money using the kind of prepaid cards that can be bought at a drugstore and cannot be traced to a donor.

The problem with such cards, campaign finance lawyers said, is that they make it impossible to tell whether foreign nationals, donors who have exceeded the limits, government contractors or others who are barred from giving to a federal campaign are making contributions…

…The Obama campaign has shattered presidential fundraising records, in part by capitalizing on the ease of online giving. Of the $150 million the senator from Illinois raised in September, nearly $100 million came in over the Internet.

Note that the Obama campaign is claiming their review process “ensures” they’re refunding illegal contributions while lawyers are saying that it’s impossible to tell. According to one FEC official, the Obama campaign has been repeatedly caught accepting illegal donations and when told to return the money, the Obama camp’s response has been to give the FEC the proverbial finger.

The Obama campaign appears to have made the decision to willing ignore — if not actively violate — Federal campaign financing laws knowing that by the time the FEC is able to enforce a decision, the election will be long over.

Update: A little vomit-inducing irony from the memory hole. Barack Obama’s 1.5 million supporters… people like Es Esh, Good Will, and Doodad Pro, just “ordinary people doing extraordinary things” working to “change the way campaigns are funded” by committing credit card fraud.

Update: Hot Air delves deeper into the issue.