Sunday, Nov. 2,2008 9:26 p.m.
Barack Obama’s fundraising prowess has been well documented this
election season, as has been the large extent to which his funding has
come from small donors. The average campaign contribution for Obama is
$86, according to the campaign.
Of course, with such an influx of cash – and the obvious disadvantage
at which it has put his opponent – there are bound to be accusations of
impropriety.
For example, John McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis recently implied
there could be either illegal donors, illegal types of donations, or
people contributing more than the legal limit.
There’s little proof to either support or deny these accusations,
though, mostly because the Obama campaign hasn’t released information
on donors who contributed less than $200. In fact, campaigns are not
legally obligated to release the identity of these small donors.
According to Slate magazine, it would be possible, and not too hard, to
be able to compile a database of donors that could be released. They
know this because they did it – not with Obama’s actual donors,
obviously, but with an invented list.
The laws that govern campaign finance, like much else in the bureaucracy of government, are outdated.