Dnc Masked Some Donations By Giving Them To State Parties

Democratic National Committee officials channeled millions of dollars in campaign donations to state Democratic parties last year, effectively hiding big contributions from tobacco, gambling and other special interests.

Contributors’ checks routinely were sent to DNC headquarters before being passed on to the state parties, but documents show that DNC officials kept meticulous records of the donations so that donors and fund-raisers received credit.

Because the money was not deposited in the accounts of the national party, the identities of the donors did not appear on the DNC’s federal disclosure reports. Instead, the donations were reported on the state level, where they are far more difficult to track.

Diverting campaign checks to the state parties allowed the DNC to avoid criticism for accepting contributions from controversial industries and protected some donors who did not want the fact or magnitude of their contributions known.

For example, at the time last year that Vice President Gore was attacking the Republican National Committee as “just about a wholly owned subsidiary of the tobacco industry,” DNC fund-raisers asked R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to make campaign contributions through state Democratic parties.

“They preferred that it go to the state organizations,” Reynolds spokeswoman Maura Ellis said of $50,000 in donations the company gave to four Democratic state parties and another party committee. “That was at their request.”

The Sault Ste. Marie Chippewas, a Native American tribe that operates casinos in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was concerned about angering the state’s Republican governor, John Engler, according to a DNC official. So while it gave $100,000 directly to the DNC, the tribe also contributed at least $270,000 more to five state Democratic parties.

Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending, said the DNC, in effect, was “keeping a second set of books.”

DNC spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe said the party “had no reason to hide the donations.” She said party records indicate the DNC directed at least $3.6 million to state parties.