Democrats Remove A Top Fund-Raiser After Allegations In Shift, Party To Reimburse Buddhist Temple For Cost Of April Event

Stung by GOP allegations of improper and possibly illegal fund raising, the Democratic Party said Friday it was removing a star fund-raiser from such work.

John Huang, who raised an estimated $4 million to $5 million for the Democrats from Asian-Americans this year, remains on the Democratic National Committee staff but “has no current fund-raising assignments,” said DNC spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe.

Huang, a former Commerce Department official, organized a fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple in California last spring that raised questions about the sources of contributions at the event. The DNC said Friday it was reimbursing the temple $15,000 for the cost of the fund-raiser.

The committee also asked the Federal Election Commission on Friday to undertake an “expedited” investigation of some contributions the committee received in the last two years. The request came in a letter to the election commission’s general counsel, Lawrence Noble, from Joseph Sandler, his counterpart at the DNC.

Tobe said Huang would be “devoting his attention” to providing information to the election commission for the investigation. His changed role “doesn’t preclude him from doing fund raising” in the future, she said.

“We are reimbursing the temple $15,000 because we don’t accept gifts or in-kind contributions from religious organizations,” Tobe said.

She said the check was sent Friday morning following a decision Thursday to reimburse the money.

“We are going to review any contribution where there’s credible evidence of illegality, and do what we can to verify the questions raised,” Tobe said. She added that the Democratic committee had asked the FEC to investigate the contributions because it “has the resources to do a more thorough review and they have broader powers than we do.”

In a related development, the Republican National Committee on Friday returned a $15,000 illegal contribution from a Canadian company, Methanex, according to Roll Call, a newspaper of Capitol Hill. The donation by the U.S. subsidiary of Methanex, the world’s largest methanol producer, violated campaign finance laws because the money was not earned in the United States, Roll Call reported.

On Thursday, the DNC acknowledged it was a mistake for Huang and others to hold a fund-raiser in April with Asian-Americans at the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif. Religious facilities are not supposed to be used for such events because of their tax-exempt status as nonprofit charitable institutions.

Tobe said Thursday the DNC erred in failing to report to federal regulators the $15,000 cost of the fund-raiser as a contribution from the temple. At that time, she said the Democrats planned to revise their report but not to reimburse the money.