Bear facts = lack of disclosure

N.Z. Bear is the author of the Truth Laid Bear blog. The Bear blogs in-depth and backs up his work with research (contrast that with Ted Rall, Kos at Atrios, all of MoveOn, etc.). Saturday's entry = contribution disclosure. Specifically, which candidates have done their best to obtain and report the name, address, occupation and employer of each $200+ contributor (by calendar year), as required by FEC regulations. President Bush has a full disclosure rate of 93%, highest of any of the presidential candidates. Kerry has a full disclosure rate of 76.4%, lower than every other candidate except Wesley Clark. Ditto Kerry's rate of full plus incomplete disclosure = 77.1%.

It's not the campaigns who have to pry the required information out of their contributors, it is instead incumbent upon the contributors to give that information to the campaigns. No disclosure means "No information about the donor's employer and/or occupation was listed." Thus, the Kerry campaign has a lot more people who are trying to hide who they are, who they work for and what they do contributing to it than any other campaign other than Gen. Clark's.

The next question is why that is. First, we know from Edwards' campaign that lawyers "encouraged" (read: Soviet-style encouragement) their staffers to contribute and then would reimburse those staffers -- an illegal mechanism that, upon discovery, forced Edwards to refund a significant amount of money. Second, we know that Kerry has the support of the radical left -- MoveOn.org and its fellow travelers like International Answer, the CP-USA, etc. Those people tend not to want to expose themselves, and the Kerry campaign has continually downplayed its appeal to the far left.