Obama’s Campaign Unlikely To Be Audited, But McCain’s Will Be

The Federal Election Commission is unlikely to conduct an audit of how Barack Obama raised and spent his presidential campaign’s record-shattering boatload of cash, despite charges of illegal donations that have Republicans outraged. Get ready for some MORE outrage, because the FEC WILL be auditing John McCain’s campaign. Why? Because he took public financing, and the FEC automatically does an audit. What’s more, the audit could take YEARS…and will cost McCain MILLIONS of dollars to defend.

Because Obama opted out of the public system, and because the massive amount he raised dwarfs the relative significance of any errors, he is likely to escape an audit. Outraged yet? The FEC would have to vote to launch an Obama audit, and it usually chickens out of a probe that could impact one party or the other inordinately. It doesn’t like getting its hands messy, and an Obama audit would be quite messy.

McCain accepted the $84 million of taxpayer funding, which prevented him from raising or spending more. This acceptance will keep his lawyers busy for years explaining how every penny was spent. The McCain campaign already put about $10 million in a special fund just to pay for the automatic audit. That sound you just heard was the last nail in the coffin of the public campaign finance system.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt states that he does not expect the campaign to be audited, and has the audacity to say that “We have had a first rate compliance operation for an unprecedented national grassroots fundraising effort.”

Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to decline public funding in the general election. His campaign admitted it initially misrepresented the purpose of an $832,598 payment for get-out-the-vote efforts to an ACORN-affiliated consultant. The FEC sent letters to the campaign highlighting hundreds of contributors for whom the campaign either didn’t supply adequate information or from whom he accepted donations exceeding the $4,600 limit. LaBolt says the campaign corrected the errors.

Conservative media seized on the FEC letters to Obama, particularly donations from apparently fictitious donors as well as from foreign addresses. Charges that the Obama campaign was willfully allowing foreign donations, and donations over the legal limits, prompted the RNC to file an FEC complaint. The campaign’s refusal to voluntarily release the names, addresses and employers of donors who gave less than $200 each, (approximately half of the more than $650 million the campaign raised in the general election), caused the RNC to ask the FEC “to immediately conduct a full audit” of all of Obama’s contributions.

Sadly, a complaint rarely triggers an audit. Also working in Obama’s favor is the complicated formula the FEC uses to determine whether a campaign has “substantially” violated federal election rules. The huge number of small donations works in Obama’s favor. David Mason, a former Republican appointee to the FEC explains that the FEC takes into account the size of the campaign’s coffers.

“So if a House campaign makes a $100,000 error, that’s huge and they’re likely to get audited,” he said. “If a campaign the size of the Obama campaign has a $100,000 error, then maybe not. It would depend on what the error is, obviously,” he said, explaining that mere accounting snafus are unlikely to prompt an audit. More serious and systemic problems, such as illegal contributions, result in campaigns getting tagged with more “audit points,” Mason explained. “If you get enough audit points, you get audited,” he said, adding “nobody outside the commission would know how many audit points the Obama campaign has.”

FEC insiders say if campaigns adequately answer the agency’s requests for information, it’s less likely they’ll be recommended for an audit. What’s worse? Like everything, it’s political. It will be tough to get the majority vote needed to initiate the audit. Why? The FEC is made up of three Democratic commissioners and three Republicans, and usually deadlocks on partisan issues. Sigh.

Did You Enjoy this Post? Subscribe to Right Soup by Email, RSS, or Twitter

Related Posts on Right Soup:

• Penny Pritzker Withdraws From Secretary of Commerce Vetting Process Over ‘Past Dealings’
• Aerosmith’s Joe Perry Walks McCain’s Way
• Obama’s Cabinet Selection Complicated By Campaign Promises
• Is The FBI Investigating Obama’s Florida Campaign Chair Robert Wexler?
• Obama’s Presser: Lotta Fluff, Little Stuff

Most Recent Posts on Right Soup:

• Slaughtered.
• Michele Bachmann Calls For Investigation Of Obama Judicial Appointment
• Right Sightings
• Michael Savage: Turn Tea Party Into “Impeach Obama” Party
• John Brennan Panders To “Flying Imam” Ringleader
• Why Underwater Loans Are NOT Being Negotiated
• Right Sightings
• National Tea Party Convention: Breitbart Spanks The Media!
• Too Late To Apologize: A Declaration
• It’s Not Civil To Question Obama’s Citizenship