Current Event #6

Article: “Campaign Finance Gets New Scrutiny”
Writer: Matthew Mosk
Source: The Washington Post
Date: Sunday, October 26, 2008

With Senator Barack Obama raising hundreds of millions of dollars for his presidential campaign, lawyers from both major parties are urging the Federal Election Committee (FEC) to examine the relaxed screening procedures used on Obama’s website. The Republican Party is worried that the Obama campaign is unable to know who is really donating money via credit card transactions. Democrats assure the public that they are as against cheating the FEC Act as their competitors and are taking proper steps to prevent the illegal process.

Because the FEC Act requires all candidates (even those that don’t receive public funding like Obama) to report all donations, the Democrats are using tactics such as offering immediate refunds from misused credit cards to avoid violating the legislations provisions. In September alone, nearly 20% ($353,000 of $1.8 million) of donations were returned to the sketchy contributors.