Senator Specter's campaign makes refunds

By: Scott Gilbert

Senator Arlen Specter’s campaign gave back nearly 225,000 dollars to campaign donors in the second quarter of this year, many of them Republicans who demanded their money back after Specter switched parties in April.

By: Scott Gilbert

Senator Arlen Specter’s campaign gave back nearly 225,000 dollars to campaign donors in the second quarter of this year, many of them Republicans who demanded their money back after Specter switched parties in April.

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[audio: 090724sgdonor.mp3]

Pennsylvania’s senior U.S. senator made good on a promise to honor requests from anyone who asked for a refund following his switch from the Republican to the Democratic party.

Christopher Nicholas, Senator Arlen Specter’s campaign manager, says about two-thirds of the refunds went to people who submitted requests, while the rest was automatically refunded to Specter’s former Republican colleagues.

Nicholas notes requests from many people could not be honored.

Nicholas: They’d given money to the state Republican party or the national Republican party and assumed it went to us. So we had, like I said, more people claiming they had given us money than had actually given us money who were looking for refunds, not that anyone was trying to rip us off, they were just confused about where their money went and who it went to.

Nicholas adds that while the campaign refunded $225,000 dollars in the last quarter, it took in nearly $1.74 million dollars. He says the stream of refund requests has “dwindled down to pretty much nothing.”