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Youngsters Fill Campaign Coffers

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By MATTHEW MOSK, The Washington Post

Published: October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON - Elrick Williams' toddler niece Carlyn may be one of the youngest contributors to this year's presidential campaign. The 2-year-old gave $2,300 to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

So did her sister and brother, Imara, 13, and Ishmael, 9, and her cousins Chan and Alexis, both 13. Altogether, according to newly released campaign finance reports, the extended family of Williams, a wealthy Chicago financier, handed over nearly a dozen checks in March for the maximum allowed to Obama.

Such campaign donations from children would almost certainly run afoul of campaign finance regulations, several campaign lawyers said. But as bundlers seek to raise higher sums for presidential contenders this year, the number who are turning to checks from underage givers appears to be on the rise.

'It's not difficult for a banker or a trial lawyer or a hedge fund manager to come up with $2,300, and they're often left wanting to do more,' said Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics. 'That's when they look across the dinner table at their children and see an opportunity.'

Asked about the Williams family giving, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, 'As a policy, we don't take donations from anyone under the age of 15.' He said the children's donations will be returned.

Although campaign finance laws set a limit of $2,300 per donor per year, they do not explicitly bar donors based on age. And young donors abound in the fundraising reports this year.

A supporter of Republican former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Susan Henken of Dover, Mass., wrote her own $2,300 check, and her 13-year-old son, Samuel, and 15-year-old daughter, Julia, each wrote $2,300 checks, for example. Samuel used money from his bar mitzvah and money he earned 'dog sitting,' and Julia used babysitting money to make the contributions, their mother said. 'My children like to donate to a lot of causes.'

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