An awful lot of people are saying that they will not give any more money to Obama until they get clarification or confirmation from him saying that their hard earned dollars will not be given to Clinton to retire her debt. Let's set the record straight right now.
It is illegal to take campaign contributions that were given to one person's campaign and give them to another person's campaign.
Yes, it is that simple.
No, you do not need clarification or confirmation from Obama (although you will find it in this diary). He will not make a deal with Clinton to get her to drop out of the race if that deal includes committing a crime.
Join me after the fold, and help set the record straight on this.
These rumors got started when a reporter asked Obama if he would help Clinton retire her debt, and he responded with this statement:
That is not a conversation we have had because our working assumption is that we are still in the middle of a race. I think historically after a campaign is done and you want to unify the party particularly when you have a strong opportunity you want to make sure you are putting that opponent in a strong position to work to win an election in November. So we obviously would want to have a broad-ranging discussion conversation with Sen. Clinton about how I could make her feel good about the process and have her on the team moving forward. But it is premature right now. She is still actively running and we still got business to do here in Oregon.
Notice, nowhere in that statement did Obama say that he would retire her debt. He said these discussions were premature. The closest he came was saying that he would have a conversation after the primaries are over about how he could make her feel good about the process. That's a far cry from saying he would retire her debt.
First of all, let's disabuse everyone of the notion that your hard earned dollars could go directly into Hillary Clinton's pockets. Even if Obama decides to help Clinton with her campaign debt (which we'll get to shortly), after the election is over, the FEC will only allow her to pay herself back $250,000 of what she loaned her campaign.
Now, I know you're still concerned that some of your money might go to Mark Penn, and I don't blame you for that -- I don't want a single cent to of my money to go to Mark Penn either.
I want to ensure that it is clear that Obama cannot just take money from his campaign and transfer it to Clinton's campaign. This is for a couple of reasons, but the primary (and most important) reason according to Bob Biersack of the FEC is that a transfer from one candidate committee to another candidate committee is limited at $2,000.
It makes sense that the FEC limits these kinds of transfers. Think about the donor limits -- each individual donor is limited to $2300, and donations cannot be made on behalf of another individual. If Obama were to transfer funds from his campaign to the Clinton campaign, his campaign would be breaking both of those laws. They would be donating to the Clinton campaign on behalf of the individuals who donated to Obama, and they would be transferring from a pool of funds that would surely include some maxed out Clinton donors. Thus, the FEC limits transfers between campaigns in large part to avoid dealing with these sticky issues.
According to the Huffington Post:
Under federal campaign finance law, the Obama campaign cannot directly pay off Clinton's debts, or the $11.43 million she has loaned the campaign, because that would violate campaign contribution limits.
According to USA Today:
Obama cannot under federal law assume direct responsibility for Clinton's debts because that would amount to an illegal contribution, far above contribution limits.
Well, of course the rumor-mongers don't give up there. Some have even suggested that Obama will transfer the money to the DNC, and the DNC will then transfer it to Clinton. That won't work either -- the DNC can only give up to $5,000 to Clinton.
If you don't believe any of these sources, check the FEC regulations yourself. Specifically, read this 244 page PDF, and look at 2 U.S.C.A. § 441a-1. You can even read the entire document if you wish -- good luck with that.
So, if Obama wants to help Clinton retire her debt, these are the available options:
- Host a fundraiser for her
- Host a joint fundraiser where they split the funds
- Send out fundraising appeals for her to his lists
- Ask his top donors to donate the max for her
- Etc.
I would like to suggest one solution that I think would be effective. For a short while, the Clinton campaign allowed donors to select where their money would go. Perhaps if they did this and included an option for "pay off small business vendor debts" and had an intermediary responsible for ensuring it actually happened, they might find some Obama donors willing to contribute to retiring that debt (and probably only that debt).
And the final word, from the Obama campaign:
If Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton would happen to broker a deal to help pay off her campaign debts – this remains a big if, aides said, because nothing has been formally discussed – the money would not be taken from Mr. Obama’s campaign account. Instead, he would have to make a fund-raising appeal on her behalf, asking people to contribute.
Now that that's settled, go make a donation to the Obama campaign.