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...Committee has raised $6.3 million this year through an aggressive and misleading fund-raising campaign that collected money from senior citizens who thought they were giving to the election efforts of...

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Many of the top donors were in their 80s and 90s. The donors wrote checks — sometimes hundreds and, in at least one case, totaling more than $100,000 — to groups with official sounding-names....little of the money went to election efforts....nearly 90 percent went to direct-mail vendors and postage expenses, according to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service

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This year, as millions of dollars flowed in, [the group] falsely claimed in letters that checks were only trickling in and that the group was in a constant budget crisis.

And the elderly continued to be a major source of donations.

There are far more retired people giving to [them] than to any other IRS-regulated independent political committee, IRS records indicate.

The Times was able to determine the ages of 49 of the top 50 individual donors... The median age of the donors is 85, and 14 of them are 90 or older.

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"And they kept telling me I've got to do this or we can't win," the retired bookkeeper said. "You see, I was the only one. They said the others had quit. I was the only one they were writing to, I thought."

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An August fund-raising letter showed that aggressive approach, telling donors there was a [party name] conspiracy to intercept the committee's mail:

"Given what I've learned, you and I must take every precaution necessary.

"Apparently the [opposing party] don't have any concern about hurting you, your family or America.

"Their sole concern is revenge — vengeance — retribution."

With the approach of Tuesday's election, the letters have become even more breathless.

Last Saturday, a donor received what appears to be a photocopied handwritten note from the director of one committee: "Please understand I have no one else to turn to. This is serious: We will have to close our doors!

"I need your help now!"

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