Matt W over at My Left Nutmeg caught this VERY INTERESTING tidbit about Cappiello's fundraising numbers...and someone has some explaining to do.

Can someone get Mary Saracino on the line?

My oh my. I noticed one of these over-the-limit contributions yesterday (Scott Frantz from Greenwich giving $6900 to candidate Cappiello), but thanks to Gabe's catch of committee-to-committee transfers, it looks like we've got a bit of a pattern on our hands.

First, as many of you know, the contribution limit for an individual to a political campaign is $2300, a number which rises slightly in each cycle to keep up with inflation (just like -- nah, that's a different fight.) However, the Federal Elections Commission assumes a primary for all Federal races, so the limit is really $4,600, with anything between $2300 and $4600 held in reserve until after the primary date (in September in Connecticut).

So let's have a look at the fabulous fundraising day that David Cappiello had on March 31. You can't tell the players without a scorecard: Cappiello's Q1 report can be viewed here and here.

Mrs Katherine Beattie, a homemaker from Danbury, decided to express her generosity to the tune of $4500, and on the same day, made a new check out to the Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 fund for $10,000.

Mr. James Brown Jr, a retiree from Wilton, also hit donation limits that day with his $2000 check, making another $2000 contribution to the Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 fund.

Martha Dean, a lawyer from Avon made out two checks in March -- one on 3/12 for $200, and one on 3/31 for $1000 -- which also put her over the limit. She also happened to give Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 a $1000 check on 3/31.

Ann and Emil Gaspari - a couple from Shrub Oak, NY - found some reason to be quite interested in Connecticut's 5th Congressional District on the 31st of March: they wrote four checks for $2300 each to Cappiello's campaign, and on the same day, each of them wrote an additional check for $7,300 to the Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 fund.

Rodney and Beverly Hawes from New Canaan are similar to the Gasparis, though both of the Haweses appear to be homemakers. Still, they must have a pretty good system in place, because they wrote four checks for $2300 each to the Cappiello campaign, and Rodney wrote two checks for $14,600 each – over twenthy-nine thousand dollars to Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08. All six checks were written on March 31st.

You see a pattern here, obviously: Cassabdra Jabara of Ridgefield, Jennifer Buchanan O'Neill of Southbury, Irene Riebe of New Canaan, Richard Steiner of Monroe, Samuel Vincent of Newtown, and Michael Vlock of Branford all joined these friendly people in writing checks to the Cappiello campaign on 3/31/08 which brought them to or beyond the legal donation limit, and also wrote checks to the Cappiello-Connecticut Victory 08 fund.

Matt last paragraph says it all...

The question of what must have been going on in Cappiello's mind the morning of March 31st, as he prepares to enter the last day of the fundraising quarter with well under $100,000 to show for the quarter, is an interesting one. Panic? Was he nonplussed? Either way, I think it's fair to guess that Mr. Cappiello isn't the type of elected official who likes to prepare ahead for important events – I'd be willing to bet the farm that he'd be the "didn't read the intelligence" type of Congressman.

Just like Cappiello's nemesis who resides on the third floor of City Hall (for more info, ask a Republican about the animosity between Cappiello and Boughton that stems from their State Rep 138th race years ago), it all comes down to watching the money trail.