Mysterious Obama Campaign Donations Discovered by NY Times

Score one for the New York Times. Their reporters have decided that it is indeed an issue that deserves further scrutiny. It seems that there are thousands of campaign donations to the Obama campaign that have less than honorable names associated with them. In fact, they're bogus names.

Someone identifying himself as “Jockim Alberton,” from 1581 Leroy Avenue in Wilmington, Del., began giving to Mr. Obama last November, contributing $10 and $25 at a time for a total of $445 through the end of February.

The only problem? There is no Leroy Avenue in Wilmington. And Jockim Alberton, who listed his employer and occupation as “Fdsa Fdsa,” does not show up in a search of public records.

An analysis of campaign finance records by The New York Times this week found nearly 3,000 donations to Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee, from more than a dozen people with apparently fictitious donor information. The contributions represent a tiny fraction of the record $450 million Mr. Obama has raised. But the questionable donations — some donors were listed simply with gibberish for their names — raise concerns about whether the Obama campaign is adequately vetting its unprecedented flood of donors.

It is unclear why someone making a political donation would want to enter a false name. Some perhaps did it for privacy reasons. Another, more ominous possibility, of course, is fraud, perhaps in order to donate beyond the maximum limits.

Someone could be playing pranks with the names to maintain their anonymity, but there are reasons why we're supposed to know the identities of those sending in campaign contributions. It's to ensure openness and that individuals are not violating federal campaign laws by going over limits. If those bogus names are linked to efforts to avoid the federal limits, we're got ourselves a big problem on our hands. It's an even bigger headache for the Obama campaign, who eschewed federal funding for the campaign in favor of raising funds directly.