Top ActBlue Donor in Colorado Questions $230K in Donations:

Top ActBlue Donor in Colorado Questions $230K in Donations: 'I’ve Been Retired So I don’t Have Steady Income' Amid Fundraising Suspicions

"No, my money’s not being stolen. There’s nothing there to steal," insists Sonia ImMasche, a retired Colorado resident, who has reportedly donated over $230,000 to ActBlue from 2017 to 2023. Living in a retirement home and having been retired for 21 years, ImMasche finds it hard to believe she could have contributed such a large amount. "It’s kind of expensive to live here, and I’ve been retired for 21 years, so I don’t necessarily have steady income," she explains, raising doubts about the legitimacy of these donations in her name.

ImMasche's concerns are compounded by a 2014
@nytimes
article that featured her as a top donor for ActBlue, where she remarked, "It can get addictive" to keep donating. Reflecting on her history of contributions, she admits, "I started out giving like $25 a month." However, she has since scaled back, saying, "Now I'm down to $10 and $15 at the most."

Despite her conviction that no one is using her name fraudulently, ImMasche acknowledges that her son was alarmed by the volume of contributions, stating, "My son was having a breakdown. He was tracking my credit card and was going, ‘My God, you're donating way too much to politics.’" While she stands by the small amounts, she admits, "I’ve cut back quite a bit. Living here has kind of cut into my finances."

ImMasche’s situation is part of a larger pattern emerging across the country, where donors are linked to massive sums they struggle to account for.