Lee Holmes, for his part, told OpenSecrets Blog that he did not make the contributions in his wife's name, and he contended it was "wrong" for her name to appear in any group's campaign finance reports at all.

"I assure you I did not make these or any donations in her name, and cannot see why anyone else would use her name," Holmes told OpenSecrets Blog.

Holmes, who himself has given roughly the legal allowable amounts to the Tea Party Express' PAC in the past two years, suggested that the political action committee could have filed erroneous reports.

"I made a number of Tea Party donations, but used my own personal credit cards," he said. "Whether I made donations on those dates and they entered them [under her name] in error, I don't know."

Sal Russo, the chief strategist of the Tea Party Express, told OpenSecrets Blog that he was surprised to hear that a deceased woman's name appeared among the group's contributors.

"She died in 2007? You're kidding me?!" he said.

"Whatever we show in the reports is what people put there," Russo continued. "Ninety-nine percent of our contributions are done electronically on the internet. We don't have direct contact with donors.