Specter Returns Campaign Contributions

The Arlen Specter campaign gave back nearly 225-thousand dollars to campaign donors in the second quarter of this year.
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 in late April.
Christopher Nicholas, 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.

"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 says campaigns are used to people asking to have their donations refunded.

"Not just in one kind of rush after a specific big news announcement. So, federal campaigns are always giving refunds for those various reasons. This one got more visibility because Senator Specter made the offer publicly and explicitly."

Nicholas adds that while the campaign refunded 225-thousand dollars in the last quarter, it took in nearly one-point-seven-four million dollars. He says the stream of refund requests has "dwindled down to pretty much nothing."