Something fishy going on

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on August 28, 2007

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is getting a lot of money from a very unlikely source.

One of the biggest sources of political donations to Hillary Rodham Clinton is a tiny, lime-green bungalow that lies under the flight path from San Francisco International Airport.

Six members of the Paw family, each listing the house at 41 Shelbourne Ave. as their residence, have donated a combined $45,000 to the Democratic senator from New York since 2005, for her presidential campaign, her Senate re-election last year and her political action committee. In all, the six Paws have donated a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005, election records show.

That total ranks the house with residences in Greenwich, Conn., and Manhattan's Upper East Side among the top addresses to donate to the Democratic presidential front-runner over the past two years, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of donations listed with the Federal Election Commission.

It isn't obvious how the Paw family is able to afford such political largess. Records show they own a gift shop and live in a 1,280-square-foot house that they recently refinanced for $270,000. William Paw, the 64-year-old head of the household, is a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service who earns about $49,000 a year, according to a union representative. Alice Paw, also 64, is a homemaker. The couple's grown children have jobs ranging from account manager at a software company to "attendance liaison" at a local public high school. One is listed on campaign records as an executive at a mutual fund.

With former President Clinton's problems with illegal Chinese financing of his campaigns, one wonders if this is just the same tune, second stanza.

The good news is that the Journal is keeping an eye on these public records and exposing these questionable campaign contributions. Will the rest of the media follow?

It's unclear what effect, if any, these sorts of reports will have on Sen. Clinton's campaign. There probably should be some fallout, but we will see if her damage control abilities are as good as her husbands.

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