Today's LA Times broke the news about what may be a campaign finance scandal involving the Clinton campaign:
The Times examined the cases of more than 150 donors who provided checks to Clinton after fundraising events geared to the Chinese community. One-third of those donors could not be found using property, telephone or business records. Most have not registered to vote, according to public records.
And several dozen were described in financial reports as holding jobs -- including dishwasher, server or chef -- that would normally make it difficult to donate amounts ranging from $500 to the legal maximum of $2,300 per election.
LA Times
David Bonior:
"The bottom line is we need a nominee who can do two things," Bonior writes, "campaign in all 50 states and challenge our broken system in Washington. With every day the growing question has to be can Hillary Clinton do either?"
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More after the fold.
A brewing Clinton scandal
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While on the Democratic side, John Edwards and Barack Obama are taking increasingly openly swings at Hillary Clinton. So this LA Times story about Hillary’s fundraising might give either of them the opening they need to go after Hillary on what are her three biggest weaknesses: her links to the Clinton scandals of the 1990s, trustworthiness and being part of the same old political establishment.
It is hard to put a sympathetic spin on this story about Clinton’s surprising success in raising large amounts of coin in New York’s Chinatown neighbourhood, an area where 45 percent of people are living below the poverty line.
Coffee House
More from the LA Times:
NEW YORK --
All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate -- Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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Dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury.
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At least one reported donor denies making a contribution. Another admitted to lacking the legal-resident status required for giving campaign money.
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The tenement at 44 Henry St. was listed in Clinton's campaign reports as the home of Shu Fang Li, who reportedly gave $1,000.
In a recent visit, a man, apparently drunk, was asleep near the entrance to the neighboring beauty parlor, the Nice Hair Salon.
A tenant living in the apartment listed as Li's address said through a translator that she had not heard of him, although she had lived there for the last 10 years.
A man named Liang Zheng was listed as having contributed $1,000. The address given was a large apartment building on East 194th Street in the Bronx, but no one by that name could be located there.
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One New York man who said he enthusiastically donated $2,500 to Clinton doesn't appear to be eligible to do so under federal election law. He said he came to the United States from China about two years ago and didn't have a green card.
LA Times
John Edwards for President campaign manager Congressman David Bonior released the following statement:
"This morning we all read in L.A. Times that many Clinton campaign contributions are raising eyebrows again. Many of their donors are not even registered to vote, and at least one denied even making any contribution at all.
"In order to win in 2008, Democrats need to select a nominee who knows the system in Washington is not only broken, but it’s corrupt. This is not a purity contest – it’s not about what we’ve done yesterday. This is about what each of us can do today to fix the system. Senator Clinton has said public financing is the answer. Senator Edwards has opted to take public financing, but Senator Clinton has not. Senator Clinton should explain why she doesn’t mean what she says.
"The bottom line is we need a nominee who can do two things: campaign in all 50 states and challenge our broken system in Washington. With every day the growing question has to be can Hillary Clinton do either?"
David Bonior
Hillary Clinton has no interest in fixing the system that she has so long been part of. As Democrats, we can do far better than this. Let's elect John Edwards and fix our broken system.