Free Republic

The explosive growth in online political contributions is helping to make this the most expensive presidential campaign in history. But lost in the money pipeline is the cost of point-and-click donations. An Arizona Republic analysis of campaign expense records shows that organizations that process credit-card transactions have collected more than $11 million in fees for handling Internet contributions and related services. Candidates in both parties, including the three major candidates still in the race, have divided the processing fees among several organizations, with some turning to openly partisan sources to process the bulk of their donations, the analysis shows. One...

Peter F. Paul, the flamboyant Hollywood entrepreneur who says Hillary Rodham Clinton has hidden almost $2 million of in-kind contributions he made to her campaign in 2000, is back from Brazil and promising to raise a ruckus about the New York senator as he fights bizarre securities and bank-fraud charges on which he's been indicted. Aaron Tonken, a political operative in Hollywood and a former protégé of Paul under indictment for a variety of alleged sharp deals with the rich and famous, also is promising to tell everything he knows about behind-the-scenes shenanigans of Clinton and many others. Meanwhile, the...

Circumventing Money Limits in Md. Campaigns Donors Can Contribute Funds To Parties' Special Accounts By Matthew Mosk Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 30, 2002; Page A01 Florida lawyer Kathleen L. Crotty was so eager to support Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's bid to become Maryland's next governor, she flew to Washington in May to attend a $1,000-a-person fundraiser at the home of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Townsend's uncle. But when she arrived at the senator's stately mansion, Crotty feared she would be unable to donate, having already given Townsend $4,000, the maximum that Maryland campaign finance laws allow. So on...

Working families from Malibu to East Hampton Having dragged a group of Manhattan elites back from the Hamptons last week to attend a fund-raiser at a tony Chelsea night club, Al Gore criticized the Bush administration for "working on behalf of the powerful, and letting the people of this country get the short end of the stick." Back when he was exhibiting the Democrats' renowned good sportsmanship after he lost the presidential election, Gore managed to fund his tantrum with donations sent in from such ordinary Americans as dot-com multimillionaire Steven Kirsch ($500,000), former Slim-Fast Foods chief S. Daniel Abraham...