Q: What happens to a candidate’s leftover campaign funds when he or she drops out of the race?
A: The big rule is: no personal use.
FULL QUESTION
Do candidates for elected office keep donations to their campaigns for personal use after they lose or drop out? Or do those donations have to go into a greater party fund?
FULL ANSWER
As Bob Biersack from the Federal Election Commission points out,
They’ve Got You Covered?
In television ads, Clinton’s campaign says her health care plan is the only one that will provide universal coverage, while Obama says his plan will cover all Americans, too. We find: Obama is being misleading when he says his proposal would “cover everyone.” It would make coverage available to all, but experts we consulted estimate that 15 million to 26 million wouldn’t take it up unless required to do so.
Minimum Wage Workers and Poverty
Q: Is a minimum-wage worker officially in poverty?
A: A single person working full time at the minimum wage would be barely above the poverty line. A single parent would be below it.
FULL QUESTION
I have always believed that the poverty line was below minimum wage. Is the poverty line usually less than minimum wage? Historically has this situation improved over time?
FULL ANSWER:
The federal minimum wage has been $5.85 per hour since July 24,
Monday Night Quibbles
In separate, 30-minute question-and-answer sessions sponsored by The Politico and a Washington, D.C., television station, Obama and Clinton for the most part stuck to the facts – or, often, to statements that were matters of judgment and thus out of our bailiwick. But, our mission being to point out the diminutive distortions as well as the big, fat slabs of baloney, we bring you flubs we found in last night’s non-debate:
Democratic Superdelegates
Q: Who are the superdelegates and can they change their votes once they are "committed"?
A: Democratic "superdelegates" may vote as they see fit.
Wrong Paul
Ron Paul doesn’t have much of a chance of winning the Republican nomination, but he persists with his well-funded campaign and even talks of turning it into a permanent “Revolution” that will continue far beyond 2008. We’ve given his statements little attention until now. But here we look at some of his more outlandish claims.
The Reason for the Electoral College
Q: Why does the U.S. have an Electoral College?
A: The framers of the Constitution didn’t trust direct democracy.
Bill Clinton Quote Taken Out of Context
Q: Did Bill Clinton say, "We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans"?
A: Yes, but that's a snippet of his full quote, and it's used unfairly to make Clinton seem to dismiss all rights of ordinary Americans.
Smear or Be Smeared?
Summary
The Democratic National Committee proposes to spend unlimited amounts of money to "tell the real story" about John McCain before Republicans can "start smearing" the eventual Democratic nominee. But the line of attack the Democrats outline to their potential donors in an e-mail contains some claims that are false or misleading.
The DNC paints McCain as favoring "endless war" in Iraq. What McCain actually said is that he wouldn’t mind a hundred-year troop presence "as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed."
Suing Over False Political Advertising
Q: Can people be sued for false political advertising?
A: Targets of false ads rarely sue. Libel law makes it practically impossible for candidates to collect damages, even if they should win.