WNYC/OffTheBus Investigation - 11/8/07 Update

Wow. From the moment Marc and I appeared on Brian Lehrer show to launch this assignment, my email inbox has been flooded with requests from WNYC listeners and OffTheBus contributors wanting to help.

Here's a sampling of what we accomplished during our first day researching the story:

* We managed to get totals for the donations that came in to Hillary's campaign following regional fundraisers attended by Bill Clinton.

* We've started a large research initiative looking into the endorsements Bill Clinton received when he ran for President, and whether Hillary is receiving endorsements from the same people.

* We have people looking into the impact the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative have had on Hillary's donations, including whether staffers for the organizations are contributing to Hillary's campaign.

* We have a team of people looking at emails sent by Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton soliciting donations from their e-mail database, then analyzing the FEC report to see how much money came in in the 48 hours following each of those emails.

* We have a group researching the impact (if any) Bill Clinton's book tour has had on his fundraising abilities.

* We have people researching Terry McAuliffe's major role in drumming up donors for both Bill and Hillary.

* We've got a contingent of folks doing interviews with experts on campaign finance and former campaign fundraisers.

If you're interested in joining in on the project, there's still plenty you can do to help. Just send me an email at [e-mail] and I'll get you involved with one of our ongoing research projects.

Tomorrow we're going to continue diving into the research, and then the plan is to re-group on Saturday to figure out next steps. Most likely we'll have to fill some voids - like people we should interview - and start talking about what it is that we've discovered.

Thanks to everyone who's helped out so far!

Comments

[drblack]

Hillary, and Obama, and Rudy are totally owned by the big money interests. That is why they are being pushed on us by the traditional big money media.
Kucinich, Edwards are the best bet for progressives who want to restore the Constitution,
stop needless wars, preserve the freedoms we have and make the Freedom's promised by the Constitution (life Liberty and happiness...that means total control over ones own body, mind and destiny)actually happen.
paul is for forced birth so he isn't consistent on Freedom...it makes me wonder what else he is inconsistent on.
Kucinich has always said what he felt to be right and has always supported people over, big money and special interests.

[Galvestonians for Dr. Ron Paul]

Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney disclose false information about their one day fund raising totals..

cont below.

[Galvestonians for Dr. Ron Paul]

Hillary Clinton’s Claim

There have also been reports that Senator Clinton raised $6.2 million on June 30th.

The most commonly cited figure for largest fund raising day ever is John Kerry’s $5.7 million haul on the day he accepted the Democratic nomination in 2004. It is curious that no press release was issued by Ms. Clinton’s campaign for breaking Mr. Kerry’s mark.

We were curious as to these figures, so we did a little research into the FEC reports. It is strange to us that Ms. Clinton reports her three largest fund raising days to be March 31st, June 30th, and September 30th – the three closing days of each quarter.

News reports show that around the end of June, Ms. Clinton held a fund raiser with Warren Buffet in New York City that raised roughly $1 million. A fund raiser was also held in Hollywood at the estate of grocery store mogul Ron Burkle which brought in $2.6 million. On the weekend of Friday, June 29th and Saturday, June 30th, it appears that Ms. Clinton was campaigning in Florida with Raul Martinez. Ms. Clinton reported raising $1.4 million from her 14 Florida events. Some of this was later returned, per FEC request.
While each of these events were successful, all of them did not take place on June 30th. It appears very plausible that the money brought in from these events were all tallied on June 30th, despite taking place earlier in the week.

The links and press write ups for Mrs.Clinton can be found here:

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/files/11-6-2007-PressConferenceFlier.pdf