Oct. 17--Before the big taxpayer bailout, financial firms wrote large checks to help stage the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, a report revealed Thursday.

Insurance giant AIG donated $750,000 to help host the convention, a gathering held only weeks before the firm needed an emergency $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve.

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac donated $250,000 to the Minneapolis St. Paul convention host committee. One week after the last convention balloon fell, taxpayers took control of the firm, in hopes of avoiding a financial calamity.

A number of troubled U.S. financial firms were convention donors and now are receiving billions of dollars in capital injections from the U.S. Treasury. Goldman Sachs donated $250,000. Morgan Stanley donated $100,000.

Banking giants were RNC donors, too, and now are receiving emergency help. A unit of Citigroup donated $350,000. Wells Fargo gave $250,000. JPMorgan Chase donated $100,000.

The donations, publicly disclosed Thursday, all were made to the Minneapolis St. Paul 2008 Host Committee, the group responsible for raising money to hold the Republican National Convention. The Sept. 1-4 convention nominated Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Jeff Larson, chief executive of the local host committee, said the donations from financial firms were "all in good faith" and many were made months ago.

"A lot of those companies came in very early in the process, in 2007, before

they had any problem, before we knew they were going to have any problems," Larson said. "They've been supporters and contributors to past conventions."

Many of the same financial firms gave similarly large amounts to the Democratic National Convention host committee in Denver. That gathering nominated the ticket of Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Unlike most other political gifts, donations to convention host committees can be any amount of money, given directly from corporate coffers. Critics have condemned the arrangement as an open invitation to influence-buying.

The RNC host committee says it raised $51.2 million as of Sept. 30 and spent $45.5 million, the report said.

Virtually every major corporation based in Minnesota made significant contributions. Organizers initially expected 40 percent of the donations would come from Minnesota. They turned out to be 43 percent.

"We felt great about the local participation and local support that we got for the convention," Larson said.