When Marla Stevens was first investigated and then indicted, Advance Indiana, a local conservative blog, repeatedly mentioned that Stevens had donated $25,000 to Congressman Andre Carson. Advance Indiana called for the return of those funds, which he claimed were from ill-gotten gains. (Carson was ahead of him on the return, as I recall).
Today, we learn that one of the Republican Party biggest donors, Tim Durham, had his office raided by the FBI, and he is reportedly in custody. AI reports that Durham donated $150,000 to Carl Brizzi. But, strangely, that's where the reporting ends.
So I have to ask. If Durham's pyramid collapses, will AI call for the return of all the donations, just like he did with Carson?
What I've learned from exchanges with AI's publisher, Gary Welsh, is that the "return the money" rule applies only to those who don't have defunct committees, so that if, through some crazy coincidence, both John McCain and Andre Carson got a contribution from somebody who was indicted, only Andre would have to give the money back. Don't get it, but let's run with it for now.
I didn't have time to record all of the donations because there were so many of them, but here are some notable ones:
Mitch Daniels for Governor Committee:
2004 - $75,000
2005 - $10,000
2006 - $50,000
2007- $35,000
2008 - $5,000
Aiming Higher (Governor Daniel's Pac) - 2006 - $10,000
Greg Zoeller for Attorney General - 2008 - $11,000
Greater Indianapolis Republican Finance Committee - 2007 - $25,000
Marion County Republican Central Committee:
2005 - $1,250
2006 - $5,000
Indiana State Republican Central Committee:
2005 - $37,500
2006 - $27,500
2007 - $40,000
Hoosiers for Richard Mourdock - 2007 - $1,500
Committee to Elect Brian Bosma - 2007 - $10,000
Nineteen Pac - 2008 - $1,000
House Republican Campaign Committee:
2006 - $25,000
2007 - $8,580
Friends of Mike Delph:
2006 - $5,000
2007 - $5,000
Senator Bev Gard got $1,174 in-kinded to her for a fundraiser.
The only Democrat I found on the list is Baron Hill, who received $4,600 in 2007. Baron, send him back his money if you haven't already, dude!
I guess since Jon Elrod and Rudy Guiliani have defunct committees, they get a pass on their respective $2,300s.
I will wait and see what happens because we don't have all the information yet. But if Mr. Durham ends up taking a plea for financial misdeeds, I'll be waiting to hear from AI, and I'll be expecting the Governor and the multitude of Republican committees to cough it up, just like Advance Indiana would expect.
2 comments:
Jon Elrod's Federal campaign committee is NOT defunct. Not at all! The Federal Election Commission recently sent him a reminder notice of his failure to file the required reports.
http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?_29030181769+0
Elrod still owes $14060.89 to his campaign consultants Maverick Strategies, Incorporated. That loan cannot be forgiven since it's a corporation and corporate gifts are prohibited.
Is Jon Elrod simply planning to stiff that vendor and hope nobody notices? Maybe Gary Welsh could throw another fundraiser for Jon to help Elrod pay off his debts?
And what about that $2300 of "tainted money" from Obsidian? It looks like "defunct committee" is a fairytale to cover up funny money and unpaid campaign debts!
...you forgot to mention Democratic mayor candidate Brian Williams. I am not sure that Durham had donated to his business partner yet.....
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