Kerry Keeping Eye On Big Donors

Well here is something which, sadly, is no big surprise. And wouldn't you just know that it would show up on CBS's news site. Oh, sure they view the swiftvets with suspicion and won't even give them the time of day beccause there might be ties to the Bush campaign, or so they claim. Yet here we have some very big ties to the Kerry campaign from the same person who is now embroiled in the memogate scandal. My how the worm turns.

The Kerry campaign has begun tracking major fundraisers using a Trustee Leader Board, CBS News has learned. While keeping tabs on fundraisers is nothing new, the twist is that the Kerry campaign is tracking donations to the Democratic National Committee, not to the campaign itself.

Under current campaign finance laws, donors can give a maximum of $2,000 to a presidential candidate per election cycle and up to $25,000 per year to party committees. Thus donors can give only $2,000 to Sen. Kerry himself but up to $50,000 to the DNC to support its activities this cycle. These large donations to the DNC allow donors to skirt the contribution cap to the Kerry campaign and give big bucks to the Democratic/Kerry effort through the backdoor.

The Kerry campaign is quick to point out that the Trustee Leader Board is maintained by the DNC and "is a DNC thing." But several donors, who spoke to CBS News on the condition of anonymity, said that the money was being carefully tracked by the Kerry campaign, most likely for recognition should Kerry win the presidency. In a sign of the campaign's involvement, last week's Leader Board memo was sent around by the Kerry campaign itself.

As of last week, according to information received by CBS News, 20 donors have given and/or raised more than $250,000, enough to earn them the designation of Trustee. Of those, eight have actually raised more than $500K. Those half-millions include Texas lobbyist Ben Barnes, Wall Street financier Stan Shuman, Iranian American PAC Board of Trustees member Hassan Nemazee and Texas lawyer Mark Iola. Eventually, says a source inside the process, the over-$500K raisers will have a special name designation but no moniker has been chosen yet.