Are Foreigners Financing our Presidential Campaigns?

According to an analysis being released today by a Washington think tank, the Campaign Finance Institute, Senator Obama of Illinois led the pack with such small and secret donations, pulling in about $31 million during 2007.

Rep. Ron Paul ran second in small gifts, raking in more than $17 million. At the end of the year, Senator Clinton and John Edwards, who has since dropped out, were essentially tied for third in unitemized, small contributions, with each candidate raising about $11 million.

Advocates of tighter campaign finance controls said the notion behind excusing donations of under $200 from the reporting requirements was that the sums were insignificant from an ethical perspective.

"The idea is, it is too small an amount to worry about in terms of you're not going to buy significant influence or access for $200," a spokeswoman for Common Cause, Mary Boyle, said.

However, one area of concern with the flood of donations, particularly those made online, is that foreigners could be weighing in illegally in an American election. Mr. Obama's Web site allows donors to choose an address in one of 227 possible countries or territories, including Iran, Iraq, Zimbabwe, and Yemen.

Mr. Paul's site is even more embracing, permitting addresses in Syria and the "Occupied Palestinian Territories." Michael Huckabee's Web site seems to require an American address to make a gift. Donors to Senator McCain need to put in a ZIP code of some sort, but not a state.

While it is a crime for most foreigners to donate to American campaigns at the federal level, those with so-called green card status can donate legally, as can Americans who live abroad.