The FEC sent a letter to Sen. John McCain's campaign treasurer Sept. 30 demanding the candidate turn over more information about "contributions that appear to exceed the limits."
The letter is accompanied by a nine-page list showing scores of overages from McCain's August campaign finance report, including nearly $13,000 from Texas rancher Ray R. Barrett Jr.; $9,200 from an Iraqi security consultant, H. Carter Andress; and $5,000 from Joseph F. Davolio, an executive at a major national liquor, beer and wine distributor.
"Please inform the Commission of your corrective action immediately in writing and provide photocopies of any refund checks and/or letters reattributing or redesignating the contributions in question," the letter from the FEC's senior campaign finance analyst, Leah S. Palmer, says. "The acceptance of excessive contributions is a serious problem."
The FEC sent its letter a week before a lawyer for the Republican National Committee said the party will ask the Federal Election Commission to look into the source of thousands of small-dollar contributions to Obama.
The RNC is alleging that the Obama campaign was so hungry for donations it "looked the other way" as contributions piled up from suspicious and possibly even illegal foreign donors. RNC Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross alleged there was mounting evidence of this, and cited a report in the current issue of Newsweek magazine that documents a handful of instances where donors made repeated small donations using fake names, such as "Good Will" and "Doodad Pro."
Republican vice presidential nominee Alaska Governor Sarah Palin speaks during the vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri October 2, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Young
By Jason Szep Tue Oct 7, 2008 5:56am EDT
CLEARWATER, Florida (Reuters) - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told Florida's voters on Monday to expect "rough" campaigning as she seeks to halt a slide in opinion polls in a state that could make or break Sen. John McCain's White House bid.
Strategists say the Alaska governor must rally Republican loyalists into a get-out-the-vote offensive in a two-day swing over more than 800 miles in the state that George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004 but where Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has taken the lead.
"There is a feeling now that we are beginning to see among Republicans that McCain can't win," said David Johnson, a Republican strategist and pollster who worked on Bob Dole's 1988 presidential campaign.
"A lot of the base is dissatisfied with Sen. McCain," he said of party activists who helped Bush win in 2000 and 2004.
Winning Florida's 27 electoral votes is vital to McCain's chances of capturing the 270 needed to win the November 4 presidential election.
With the pressure on, Palin is targeting Obama's judgment and character in speeches that include the unsubstantiated charge that the Illinois senator has close ties to Bill Ayers, a former member of the 1960s-era militant Weather Underground
The group was involved in bombings in the 1960s, when Obama was 8 years old. Obama met him in the 1990s when first starting his political career in Chicago and the two served on a board together. Obama has said he knows Ayers only slightly and has denounced his actions with the Weather Underground.
"I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America," Palin said of Obama at a rally of 5,000 supporters in Florida's heavily Republican city of Clearwater.
Critics say that line is especially pointed because of its potential subtext. Obama would be the first black president and his background, including part of a childhood spent in Indonesia, is different from that of most Americans.
Palin seemed to acknowledge that the race was entering a new, harsher phase. "You are going to have to hang onto your hats because from now until election day it may get kind of rough," the 44-year-old self-described "hockey mom" said.
Jamie Miller, a former regional political director of the state's Republican Party, said Florida is a "must-win" state for McCain. "Florida represents such as diverse population that when Florida starts going down, you start losing some of these other swing states, and then the path gets really hard."
'MAKE ME WANT TO CRY'
Palin was feted like a rock star by the crowd of Republican loyalists, many of whom wore the red, white and blue colors of the American flag and held placards reading "Palin Power," "Go Sarah" and "Florida 4 Sarah."
"Man, some of your signs just make me want to cry. Thank you so much," Palin said.
Jacqueline Brown, a Democrat and evangelical Christian who said she was in her 50s, likened Palin's rally to watching rock'n'roll legend Elvis Presley. "I saw Elvis and I thought I was going to die. Sarah is next to seeing Elvis," she said.
But doubts lingered for 55-year-old Allie McDonnell. "She should say more about why McCain has lobbyists on his campaign. And I'm also afraid that he'll keep the war going. A lot of our boys and brothers have died."
Four new polls last week gave Obama, who had trailed in Florida for weeks, an edge in the Sunshine State.
The change in part reflects growing concern over the deepening economic crisis, which plays to Obama's perceived strengths and has seen him gain in national opinion polls.
Palin plans to visit many of the same areas where Bush in 2004 solidified his support, such as north and southwest Florida. In addition to Clearwater, she held a rally in Fort Myers on Monday. On Tuesday, she heads to Jacksonville and then cuts across the northwestern Panhandle for an event in Pensacola.
"The Palin visit is an indicator of where McCain needs to do well. He needs to do well in the Tampa Bay region. He needs to do well in the Panhandle region and he needs to do well in southwest Florida," said Miller.
"And he needs to try and limit losses probably from the Orlando area down to Miami," he added.
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