Clinton Donors Also Gave Money to Vilsack

July 17, 2007 | Permalink

Following up on our post of the other day, an article in the LA Times today reports:

Shortly after endorsing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack received nearly $90,000 in donations to his defunct presidential campaign from some of Clinton’s major backers, campaign finance reports show.

The donations, disclosed in Federal Election Commission filings over the weekend, came from Clinton fundraising bastions of New York, California, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

None came from Iowa, where Vilsack served two terms as governor.

Vilsack, unable to raise the tens of millions needed to wage a serious presidential campaign, withdrew from the Democratic race in February. In a finance report filed Sunday covering the first half of the year, Vilsack disclosed that he had $2,962 in cash and a leftover debt of $148,000.

Once he dropped out, Democratic candidates came courting, hoping he could help them win the important early caucus state. In March he endorsed Clinton, and his Democratic organization is viewed as key to her chance of winning in Iowa six months from now.

In May and June, at least 45 Clinton donors contributed $87,000 to Vilsack’s presidential campaign account. Vilsack used part of the money to repay himself $55,000, part of a personal loan he had given to his campaign. He paid other bills as well.

It’s interesting that in every article, there are questions - mostly unanswered - about whether this sort of thing is right or wrong. Well, it’s legal, so in that sense, it’s right. But it certainly feels wrong - there’s a reason every Clinton official questioned has to strongly deny a quid pro quo was there, even though it was clear from the outset Clinton would help retire the bills. Of course, the whole existence of campaign finance always feels wrong somewhat; I shouldn’t be surprised at how icky (for lack of a better word) this seems.

Of course, at the current pace, we could be seeing this all over again with a Republican candidate enveloping the McCain campaign.

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