Among the crush of political donations to the Obama campaign, you find some odd donors. Some are die hard Democrats, but others are independents and even the odd Republican here and there. Many are long time political activists, but there are quite a few first time donors as well. But it’s a few of the donor’s names that are popping up in this New York Times report.
But even a contributor who used the name “Jgtj Jfggjjfgj,” and listed an address of “thjtrj” in “gjtjtjtjtjtjr, AP,” was able to contribute $370 in a series of $10 donations in August.
A pair of donors named “Derty West” and “Derty Poiiuy,” who listed “rewq, ME” as their addresses and “Qwertyyy” or “Qwerttyyu” as either their employer or occupation, contributed a combined $1,110 in July.
I’m going to cover a few of the possibilities being suggested and leave it up to you to pry reality from the headlines. Some of these people may, as the article suggests, simply not want to release their real names out of privacy concerns. (And, apparently, share a shocking lack of knowledge about campaign finance laws.) Others may be knowingly looking for ways to thwart the law and give more than the maximum allowable limit.
For those fans of the X-Files out there, some may speculate that Team Obama is purposefully using these ploys to funnel more money into his hugely expensive campaign. From the other end of the tin foil hat spectrum, some have even speculated that these are hijinks perpetrated by McCain supporters who knew that they would find a willing mouthpiece at Newsbusters to put the story in front of the public in October.
I personally find the last two theories without merit. It’s a silly charge for any Republicans to try to raise, given how easily it is brushed away by a campaign staff with millions of small donations to wade through. And if Obama’s team was trying to pump cash in this way, they would come up with better names than Jgtj fxtxtfuffle, and the amounts in question are barely a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions the candidate has raked in.
Personally I suspect it’s overly enthusiastic supporters breaking the law to dump every last cent they can into The One’s efforts to claim the White House. But, as I said, I’ll leave it to you to decide.