[homoe]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) indicated that mysterious dark forces — rather than his own increasing unpopularity — are responsible for surging campaign contributions to his Democratic rival, Jaime Harrison. He called for a legislative review of the kind of small-dollar donations that are boosting Harrison.

“Where’s all this money coming from?” Graham asked in an interview Wednesday with The Hill. “Some of these shadowy figures out there running ads, is there any foreign influence afoot?”

Graham conceded last month that, in fact, he’s getting “killed” by Harrison’s fundraising because his foes “hate my guts.” He pleaded for contributions on Fox News.

Harrison raised a record $57 million, mostly in small, individual contributions, in the third quarter of the year, while Graham raised $28 million. Recent polls give Harrison a slight lead over the three-term incumbent.

“I don’t know what’s going on out there, but I can tell you there’s a lot of money being raised in this campaign,” the senator told The Hill.

Graham called for an investigation into the process. “When this election is over with, I hope there will be a sitting down and finding out, ‘OK, how do we control this?’” Graham said. “It just seems to be an endless spiral.”

Graham singled out ActBlue, a nonprofit technology company that provides online fundraising software to help Democratic candidates collect small donations. He complained that the operation doesn’t report individual donors who contribute less than $200 because it’s not required by campaign finance regulations.

An ActBlue representative told The Hill that the organization reports even its smallest donations to the Federal Election Commission, yet the names and addresses of donors giving less than $200 had not been reported. Its October filing will provide the names, hometowns and employers of donors who contributed more than $1, according to ActBlue.

Hopefully Lindsey will soon join the thousands of others unemployed and knows how it feels to worry about the future!