91 Percent of Obama Donors Not Required to Be Reported to FEC

By Jim Geraghty
National Review Online

A fairly glaring whopper from Obama, mentioned in this op-ed by economics professor Jay Mandle in the Washington Post:

During a Feb. 26 debate in Cleveland, for example, Obama said that "we have now raised 90 percent of our donations from small donors, $25, $50." His campaign's own data from January 2007 through January 2008 show that 36 percent of donated funds were from small donors. Obama probably meant that 90 percent of the individuals who contributed were small donors, but the number of donors has not been verified.

While the portion of his money raised from small donors probably increased from 36 percent by the time Obama made the statement in the debate, there's no way it changed from 36 to 90 percent in twenty-six days.

Mandle's op-ed notes "Contributions of less than $200 do not have to be itemized in reports to the Federal Election Commission, so we have no idea how many are made."

The FEC asks campaigns to report any donor whose cumulative contributions have exceeded $200. Is that occurring on the Obama campaign? (If so, no wonder the campaign has 700 paid employees. Imagine keeping track of John Smith donating $20 in January, $30 in February, only $15 in March, etc., times 2.7 million. Yes, you read that correctly. According to the Obama campaign, 91 percent — roughly 2.7 million — of their 3 million donors have given less than $100. Presuming that is accurate, right now, they are only obligated to report information to the FEC on 9 percent of their donors!)

If the campaign isn't able to keep up, and donors don't have to report a donation of less than $200 to the FEC, what is to stop someone from working around the $2,300 per candidate per race limit by donating, say, $19,900 in a hundred donations of $199?