Over the past week, The Tennessee Star has been tracking Tennessee’s apparent “ghost donors” to far-left Political Action Committee (PAC) ActBlue, who have contributed more than 1,000 times to the organization since the beginning of 2023.
Cynthia Matthews of Nashville is another “ghost donor” identified by The Star.
According to FEC data, Matthews has donated $18,243.35 to ActBlue since the beginning of 2023, which is 590 days ago. That averages out to about $31 per day via 4.7 donations per day, at $6.60 per donation.
The Star was unable to reach Matthews by phone.
Thursday, The Star reported on a similar “ghost donor” named Margaret Wettemann. She has made 1,151 contributions to left-wing Political Action Committee (PAC) ActBlue since the beginning of 2023, according to her (FEC) records.
Those donations added up to $29,000.52 since January 1, 2023.
Wettemann’s average donation size to ActBlue is $25.19, significantly higher than the average donation sizes of other apparent “ghost donors.” However, she made a 72-cent donation on June 30, an 80-cent donation on June 28, and two 50-cent donations on June 27.
Thursday afternoon, The Star reached Wettemann by phone after several attempts and received guarded responses to questions concerning her volume of contributions to the left-wing PAC.
Asked if she had made more than 1,100 donations to ActBlue, Wettemann said she did not know.
Prompted further, Wettemann said she had to go to work and then hung up the phone.
On Tuesday, The Star reported that Gerald McAteer, an unemployed man in Franklin, has made 2,629 individual contributions to ActBlue, totaling $15,928.24, since the beginning of 2023.
That is an average of 4.47 times per day for just over $6 per donation, or a little more than $27 per day.
ActBlue is facing increased scrutiny from politicians and citizens alike, who posit that the group may be laundering foreign donations or other nefarious donations through unknowing people.
It has also been flagged for suspiciously not collecting three-digit security CVV codes from donors’ credit cards, which, in theory, means that donations could be made with prepaid debit cards.
That lack of security has caught Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) eye, who has now demanded FEC investigations into ActBlue’s potential fraud.
“It should come as no surprise that ActBlue serves as a vessel for fraud, considering the intentional lack of security engrained within their donation processes and systems,” Rubio said last year.
So far, the FEC has not looked into the matter.
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Peter D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Peter on Twitter/X.
Photo “ActBlue Website” by ActBlue.
