Hillary Is Undisputed Tainted Money Champ
Hillary Clinton by far leads all presidential contendersâ??both Democrat and Republican–for having the largest amount of shady donors and in just a few months she has returned nearly $1.3 million in questionable donations from scandal-plagued sources.
The New York Senator has refunded more than triple the amount of campaign cash than the rest of her Democratic rivals combined since July. Under fire and public scrutiny, Clinton returned 700 contributions, including $804,850 to nearly 250 donors linked to Chinese fugitive Norman Hsu.
In typical Clinton fashion, there has been no admission of wrongdoing but rather acting â??out of an abundance of cautionâ? in returning the tainted cash. Itâ??s not like she canâ??t afford it, after all. A prolific fundraiser, the former First Lady leads her rivals with a whopping $50 million in campaign cash so far compared to her top rivalâ??s (Illinois Senator Barack Obama) $36 million.
Obama also trails Clinton by quite a bit when it comes to refunding questionable cash. He has returned a mere $193,599 while former North Carolina Senator John Edwards returned $75,706 and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson gave back $29,285.
By contrast, the Republican presidential candidate to return the most money was former New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani who gave back $221,959. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney returned $267,709 and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson gave back $97,480.