In the last few months, John McCain and the Republican National Committee have raised a hefty amount of money for his campaign efforts. Thanks to the RNC's ability to take in $28,500 per person, the Republican machine has largely caught up with Barack Obama's fund-raising prowess. However, there are some questions about where all that money is coming...and most importantly, how it is rolling in.
From The Washington Post:
The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lounge in Fullerton.But the man who gathered checks from them is no stranger to McCain -- he shuttled the Republican on his private plane and held a fundraising event for the candidate at his house in Delray Beach, Fla.
Harry Sargeant III, a former naval officer and the owner of an oil-trading company that recently inked defense contracts potentially worth more than $1 billion, is the archetype of a modern presidential money man. The law forbids high-level supporters from writing huge checks, but with help from friends in the Middle East and the former chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit -- who now serves as a consultant to his company -- Sargeant has raised more than $100,000 for three presidential candidates from a collection of ordinary people, several of whom professed little interest in the outcome of the election.
It is possible that these people skimped and saved in order to give thousands of dollars to John McCain. The problems with that idea arise when common sense is interjected into the issue. Common sense says that something doesn't smell quite right. That is where the FEC should come in and investigate how people like Sargeant can convince a Hookah lounge owner to fork over the maximum donation allowed to John McCain.
|