Hillary's Curious Campaign Contributors

Brody Mullins at The Wall Street Journal takes a close examination of a particular Hillary Clinton supporter, Norman Hsu of New York and his friends the Paw family of San Fransisco. The Paws have given a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005, but what it isn't apparent is how the can afford such largesse, since they live in a 1280 sq ft house they recently refinanced for $270,000. William Paw is a Postal worker making $49,000 a year and his wife is a homemaker. How this Mr. Hsu is involved with this family isn't clear, although he once listed their home as his address. The Paw family's children have a variety of careers, but none of them spectacularly lucrative. But the family and Mr. Hsu do seem to have some things in common.

"The Paws' political donations closely track donations made by Norman Hsu, a wealthy New York businessman in the apparel industry who once listed the Paw home as his address, according to public records. Mr. Hsu is one of the top fund-raisers for Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign. He has hosted or co-hosted some of her most prominent money-raising events."

Of course, it is illegal for someone to reimburse someone else for political contributions, and there is no public record of this happening in the case of Mr. Hsu and the Paw family. Individuals can contribute up to $4600 a campaign cycle for a candidate, split between the primary race and the general election. However -

"The Paw family is just one set of donors whose political donations are similar to Mr. Hsu's. Several business associates of Mr. Hsu in New York have made donations to the same candidates, on the same dates for similar amounts as Mr. Hsu.

On four separate dates this year, the Paw family, Mr. Hsu and five of his associates gave Mrs. Clinton a total of $47,500. In all, the family, Mr. Hsu and his associates have given Mrs. Clinton $133,000 since 2005 and a total of nearly $720,000 to all Democratic candidates."

The Paw family is of Chinese decent, as is Mr. Hsu, and have been living in California since 1982. All but one member of the party is registered to vote as a non-partisan. The curious thing about this is that there are no records of campaign contributions being made by the family before 2004, but since then, they have been quite active - as has Mr. Hsu, and quite surprisingly, at almost identical periods of time.

"Then, in July 2004, five members of the family contributed a total of $3,600 to the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat. Five of the checks were dated July 27, 2004. About the same time, Mr. Hsu made his first donations to a political candidate, contributing the maximum amount allowed by law to Mr. Kerry in two separate checks, on July 21, 2004, and on Aug. 6.

From then on, the correlation of campaign donations between Mr. Hsu and the Paw family has continued. The first donations to Mrs. Clinton came Dec. 23, 2004, when Mr. Hsu and one Paw family member donated the then-maximum $4,000 to her Senate campaign in two $2,000 checks, campaign-finance records show. In March 2005, the individuals gave a total of $17,500 to Mrs. Clinton.

Since then, Mr. Hsu, his New York associates and the Paw family have continued to donate to Democratic candidates. This year, Alice Paw and four of the Paw children have donated the maximum $4,600 to Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign."

Of course, this is not to say there is any wrongdoing on the part of Mrs. Clinton's campaign, but it is certainly a curious state of affairs, and one in which the Paws have declined to be interviewed. It might be all an innocent coincidence, but it certainly is one in which the Federal Election Commission may desire to examine in more detail.