Edwards, Other Democratic Candidates Take In Donations Online Via ActBlue
According to this New York Times story on a new web-based service that has turned political fundraising on its head, at least for Democratic candidates. Not sure I understand why small donations made online via the ActBlue service wouldn't qualify for matching funds.
They definitely should be matched. That's the whole point of matching funds (which allow a candidate like Edwards -- who has not accepted PAC money like Hillary and Richardson etc -- to get matching funds up to the first $250 from each donor).
Where big-dollar fund-raising is typically done behind closed doors with well-connected bundlers and showy, costly fund-raisers, ActBlue is just the opposite. It is an Internet-based political action committee that lets Democratic candidates use their Web site as a portal to collect donations, making fund-raising cheap, and, for donors, as simple as a click of a mouse.
Cash comes into ActBlue’s Web pages and goes out to candidates: John Edwards has raised more than $4 million for his campaign through ActBlue, not only through his official Web site, which is linked to ActBlue, but also from dozens of supporters who have set up their own Web pages on ActBlue to solicit on his behalf, groups as varied as “Pizza for Progressives” and “Artists for Edwards!”
More than 54,000 online donors have given to Mr. Edwards, and when he announced that his wife’s cancer had returned, but that he was staying in the race, more than $100,000 was raised on ActBlue in five hours.
The rapid growth of ActBlue is posing new questions for campaign finance regulators, like whether the millions that Mr. Edwards has raised through it can qualify for federal matching money as he seeks public financing for his primary bid. At the moment, only contributions written as personal checks are counted toward matching funds — not funds raised electronically or through a third party.