Edwards Backer Reports Gift of $495K

The candidate of the poor gets big money from a wealthy supporter. Doesn't add up:

The investment account of philanthropist Rachel L. Mellon has given $495,000 to an independent group that is backing Democrat John Edwards' presidential bid.

The donation, which was disclosed in a Federal Election Commission filing Friday, comes as Edwards and rival Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois have been sniping at each other over just such outside spending.

An aide to Obama called the $495,000 gift from Mellon, who is in her mid-90s, "questionable," and Edwards repeated his view that independent advocacy groups should be banned.

The donation came from Oak Spring Farms LLC, the New York entity that holds Mellon's pharmaceutical and banking fortune.

It is all about getting around the law. The Use the system to further their campaigns. If these candidates have a message, why do they have to scrounge around for money from wherever they can get it:

The $495,000 disclosed Friday went to Alliance for a New America, an independent group not subject to federal campaign financing limits. The group also has received funding from labor organizations, and is spending $1.7 million on radio and TV ads on Edwards' behalf in Iowa.

Nick Baldick, a former Edwards aide who is overseeing the alliance's ad blitz in Iowa, declined to comment on the Mellon donation.

Edwards spokesman Eric Schultz said the "campaign has nothing to do with this, but as he has said repeatedly, Sen. Edwards believes these groups should have no role in the political process."

On Friday, Obama leveled a new attack on Edwards and fellow Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York senator, for benefiting from independent groups in Iowa -- even as a similar group has been raising significant sums to help him in the California primary.