Foreign funding of Presidential campaign legal?

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Since the current US administration cannot be pushed into respecting human rights by other governments and NGOs, I have been thinking lately that the best way forward would be for European and Arab organisations to organize a fund raising campaign to fund certain candidates in the 2008-election. I think such a fund, if established by trusted non-partisan organisations, could collect a substantial amount of money. It could i.e. submit funds to John Cain in the Republican nominations and if he fails support the democratic candidate in the main election.

Since there are some knowledgable people here:
-Is it legal for a candidate to receive funds from abroad this way?
-What amount of money would be needed to have a significant impact (in the primaries and/or in the presidential election)?
-Would news reports on the candidate receiving such funds have a positive or negative impact on the candidate's chances (this is a very important question, because if it has negative impact it will be counter productive)? Are all contributions disclosed or can it be made secret?

[Stu Pidasso]

This article might answer some of your questions.

I think Americans on both the left and the right would frown upon any candidate who accepted foreign money.

Stu

[sam h]

I don't think you can directly fund a candidate with foreign money. As I recall, there was a Clinton scandal regarding this, with allegations that he received money from some Chinese guys.

It seems perfectly reasonable, however, to fund a non-profit that would side with one candidate against the other - like the Swift Boat guys.

That would be pretty interesting, if the rest of the world started running advertising in the US. I think it might backfire though.

Contributions from foreign nationals are illegal. Contributions from foreign companies are also illegal, but if that company has a US subsidiary, the US subsidiary can contribute as long as the contributed money is generated here.

That said, foreign interests generally represent themselves in Washington by hiring lobbying and public relations firms. For example, after 9/11 Saudi Arabia hired a PR firm that produced some goody-feely TV spots about SA-USA relations.