22 NMI residents donate $23.2K to nat’l campaigns

At least 22 CNMI residents contributed a total of $23,255 to the 2007-2008 presidential campaigns of now President Barack H. Obama, former Sen. John S. McCain (Republican) and former Sen. Fred D. Thompson (Republican), records from the Federal Election Commission as of yesterday shows.

Over 60 percent or $13,965 of the campaign donations from the CNMI were for McCain, a Republican.

The other 38 percent or $8,790 was for Obama, a Democrat, while 2 percent or $500 was for Thompson, a Republican.

The donations, which ranged from $15 to $2,700, were from individuals who put the zip code 96950 on their filing with the Federal Election Commission.

Top donors

\Triple J Saipan Inc. president Robert H. Jones made three separate contributions of $1,700 and two $500, totaling $2,700. The donations were for McCain.

Lawyers Masood Karimipour, James Benedetto, and Anthony Long each made a $2,300 contribution to the Obama campaign. Long made two contributions totaling $2,300.

Jet Holding’s Juan S. Tenorio donated $2,200 in three separate occasions to McCain.

Margaret A. Jones of Triple J Saipan ranked fourth with a one-time contribution of $2,000 to McCain.

Lawyer Howard P. Willens also made a one-time $1,500 donation to McCain.

Other donors

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, a former Republican who later formed the Covenant Party, donated $1,000 to the McCain campaign.

Newly appointed Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos, Lynn Ann Knight of Tan Holdings Corp., and DFS Galleria’s Marian Aldan-Pierce each contributed $1,000 to McCain.

Contributing $500 each were lawyer Vincent J. Seman for McCain; Juan Guerrero of Insurance and Business Management Corp. for Obama; United Micronesian Development’s Russell K. Snow for McCain; and Cheryl Anne Snow, also for McCain.

Lawyer Mark Scoggins contributed a total of $600 to Obama. The donations were made on two separate occasions.

Only Daniel Nielsen, a retiree, made contribution to Thompson on two separate occasions of $250 each, for a sum of $500.

Up to nine donations

Retiree Herbert Soll, who is also a former attorney general, made nine separate contributions of $25 to $100 to the Obama campaign, totaling $330.

Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman also made nine separate contributions of $25 to $30 each for a total of $230, to Obama.

Lawyer Pam Blackburn made two separate contributions totaling $200 to the Obama campaign.

William E. Hunter of Aquarius Beach Tower donated $15 and $50, for a total of $65, to McCain.

Jon Anderson of Bridge Capital LLC donated $30 to the Obama campaign.

These figures are based on information submitted to the Federal Election Commission (www.fec.gov), an independent regulatory agency established in 1975 to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act.

FECA limits the sources and amount of the contributions used to finance federal elections, requires public disclosure of campaign finance information and, in tandem with the Primary Matching Payment Act and the Presidential Election Campaign Fund Act, provides for the public funding of presidential elections.