Before Obama's Chum, There Were Hillary's T-Shirts
by Josh Gerstein
Tue, 17 Jul 2007 at 8:18 PM
updated Tue, 17 Jul 2007 at 8:41 PM
The New York Times reported today that Senator Obama of Illinois has counted as donations to his presidential campaign purchases of thousands of caps, keychains and similar items. "No other campaign is known to have listed paraphernalia sales as donations," the Times declared.
Well, we haven't investigated what kind of chum other presidential campaigns are selling or whether they count buyers as donors. However, in 2004, the Sun's Luiza Ch. Savage reported that Senator Clinton was financing her re-election campaign in part by selling pricey $55 T-shirts, designed by Marc Jacobs and evocative of Andy Warhol's classic silkscreens of Chairman Mao.
Mrs. Clinton's senate campaign appeared to treat the purchases like donations because buyers were asked for the usual Federal Election Commission details. But it's hard to say for certain since a $55 donation is well below the $200 threshhold for itemized reporting to the FEC.
I sure hope all Mr. Obama's insignia-wear and other chum is union-made. As you can see in our 2004 story, Mrs. Clinton chose to have the shirts made in America, but in a non-union shop, which caused a stir.
Related Topics: Dem Primary
Latest Politics Homepage
|
Print
Send
RSS
