Clinton's Funny Money Man Gave to Rhode Island Candidates

According to today's New York Times, the Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton has decided to forgo some large campaign contributions from a dubious source…

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign said yesterday that it would give to charity $23,000 it had received from a prominent Democratic donor, and review thousands of dollars more that he had raised, after learning that the authorities in California had a warrant for his arrest stemming from a 1991 fraud case.

The donor, Norman Hsu, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democratic candidates since 2003, and was slated to be co-host next month for a Clinton gala featuring the entertainer Quincy Jones.

Mr. Hsu, who is in the apparel business in New York, has been considered a fugitive since he failed to show up in a San Mateo County courtroom about 15 years ago to be sentenced for his role in a scheme to defraud investors, according to the California attorney general’s office.

Mr. Hsu had pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft and was facing up to three years in prison.

The travails of Mr. Hsu have proved an embarrassment for the Clinton campaign, which has strived to project an image of rectitude in its fund-raising and to dispel any lingering shadows of past episodes of tainted contributions.

It's not just the Clinton camapaign returning the contributions; a number of other Democrats across the nation feel that Mr. Hsu's background is sufficiently murky to justify their severing of financial ties with him…

Al Franken, a Democratic Senate candidate in Minnesota, said he would divest his campaign of Mr. Hsu’s donations, as did Representatives Michael M. Honda and Doris O. Matsui of California and Representative Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, all Democrats.

But what about the Rhode Islanders who have accepted money from Mr. Hsu this cycle… (Congressman Kennedy also took $4,200 from Mr. Hsu in 2005).

Will Rhode Island's Democrats apply the same standards as their leading national candidate, or do they believe that rules about accepting suspicious donations can be applied a little more loosely when you're from Little Rhody?