The Daily Background

An anonymous donor, who funneled their money first through their lawyer, then through a front business has singlehandedly dropped almost half a million dollars into the dirty 527 group supporting John Edwards in Iowa and New Hampshire.

After investigative reporters discovered a mysterious $495,000 donation to the slush fund running inaccurate ads against Barack Obama in Iowa, they decided to try and track down who the donor might be:

The filing shows that on Dec. 19, the Alliance group received $495,000 from Oak Spring Farms LLC, a corporate entity operating from a posh hotel on Central Park South in New York City. Land records and other documents trace the Oak Spring corporation to Manhattan trust attorney Alexander Forger. Forger holds a power of attorney for Rachel Lambert Mellon, who is 97 years old. Other records and published reports show Oak Spring Farms is controlled by Rachel Mellon.

Mellon, known in social circles as “Bunny,” is the widow of Paul Mellon and daughter-in-law of industrialist Andrew Mellon. Paul Mellon also had a home in Virginia known as Oak Spring Farms.

The same Oak Springs group made a $250,000 contribution to the Edwards-affiliated One America 527 group in 2006. That contribution prompted a report in the New York Sun which raised questions about the way contributions could arrive anonymously.

527 groups like the ones supporting Edwards (as well as the Swift Boaters in 2004) are not obligated by law to disclose where they get their money from, nor are they subject to donation limits. Candidate’s actual campaigns meanwhile must provide detailed contributor information to the FEC, and adhere to a strict per-person limit of $2,300 per election (primaries and general elections count separately, allowing people to donate a maximum of $4,600). Democrats like Russ Feingold have long tried to impose further regulations on 527 groups or push them out of politics entirely.

Another suspiciously large donation– $25,000– has also raised eyebrows and was tracked down by reporters and revealed as coming from Andrew Rappaport, a silicon valley mogul and investor in the Huffington Post.

Also, from the New York Times today: “Edwards Campaign May Have Expected Union Group Plan.”

In the final days before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, John Edwards has stepped up his criticism of outside organizations that spend money to influence elections, repeatedly disavowing a labor group that is blanketing Iowa with commercials supporting his candidacy.

“As for outside groups, unfortunately, you can’t control them,” Mr. Edwards said last weekend as he distanced himself from the actions of the group, known as a 527 for the section of the tax code it falls under. He would prefer the group “not run the ads,” he said.

But the Edwards campaign may have expected the support of the group, Alliance for a New America, set up by a local of the Service Employees International Union. An Oct. 8 e-mail message circulated among the union leaders who created the group suggests that they were talking with Edwards campaign officials about “what specific kinds of support they would like to see from us” just as they were planning to create an outside group to advertise in early primary states with “a serious 527 legal structure.”

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