No trace of Patrick's mid-'90s contribution to Obama
Neither governor nor Ill. has record
Governor Deval Patrick tells audiences a funny story about donating to Barack Obama as an Illinois state Senate candidate, yet after a media inquiry, he said yesterday that he can't find proof of any such contribution.
A review by the Associated Press of records on file in Springfield, Ill., where Obama served in the Legislature for six years and his campaign committee filed its finance reports, didn't find a donation, and a separate search by Patrick and his campaign staff since last week failed to find any evidence of it.
Nonetheless, Patrick said he remembers writing a $5,000 check to Obama in the mid-1990s, a hefty sum that would have jibed with the punch line of his story, most recently - and most publicly - recounted in a four-paragraph testimonial he penned for Obama in last week's Time magazine. The issue proffered a list of the world's 100 most influential people, including Obama.
"When at last he decided to run for the Illinois Senate, he called to ask for my help, and I was eager to give it," Patrick wrote. " 'I'll contribute at the max,' I pledged. 'Deval,' he said, 'in Illinois there is no max.' I said, 'Brother, I'm sorry, there has to be a max.' "
Patrick, 51, is an ardent Obama supporter, donating to his presidential campaign and campaigning for him in battleground states. The two men share connections to Illinois and use the same Chicago-based consultant, David Axelrod.
The similarities between them caused a ruffle in February, when Obama, 46, acknowledged he had used clauses from speeches Patrick delivered during his 2006 gubernatorial campaign to rebut charges, as did Patrick, that his oratorical skills masked a lack of substance or experience. Patrick later said the two had talked about how to handle the issue.
In a statement about the undocumented state Senate donation, Steve Crawford, Patrick spokesman, said: "The governor remembers making a donation to Barack Obama's first political campaign. He does not have the canceled check from 15 years ago to document it. Who would?"
The AP inquired about the donation Friday, after failing to find it in a search of online records at the Illinois State Board of Elections.
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