JoeNixon
by digby
courtesy Billmon
The NY Times blog “The Empire Zone” doesn’t seem to think it’s even possible that Joe Lieberman could have done anything unethical with his 387,000 slush fund. They have relegated the story to its blog that nobody reads.
The truth is that $387,000 in petty cash expenses in a primary race is an enormous sum and it should set off all kinds of bells in the minds of journalists and, as Matt Stoller discusses here, the good government campaign finance groups:
If a Senator put $387,000 in cash out on the streets in the final two weeks before the election – we’re talking cash here – and then failed to disclose where it went to reporters or anyone else by using the petty cash account, wouldn’t you think that good government groups who care about campaign finance laws and disclosure would be slightly interested? I would. Yet since Lieberman revealed this on his FEC forms late last week, only the Lamont campaign has been willing to file an FEC complaint.
If Lieberman gets away with this, FEC laws are effectively meaningless, and so are state election laws. I’m frankly surprised that a scandal of this magnitude is going largely ignored by Democrats, Republicans supporting Alan Schlesinger, and good government groups across the spectrum. Can you imagine if Bob Menendez did this in New Jersey? The good government groups would be all over it. Or Tom Kean Jr? You’d see a press conference with Reid and Schumer the next day. And yet, because it’s Joe Lieberman, he’s handing out hundreds of thousands in cold hard cash before the primary to undisclosed individuals, there’s no outside groups calling foul. Still, we’re all in this together, which means that if Lieberman is allowed to shovel hundreds of thousands of dollars without consequence through his petty cash account, then next cycle you’re going to see every Senate, House, and Presidential campaign use it to avoid disclosure requirements. Their claim can simply be ‘Lieberman did it’, and they will be absolutely right.
Where are the good government groups? Common Cause? CREW? Democracy 21? Public Campaign? Public Citizen? Any one of them could file a complaint with the FEC. Any one of them could file a complaint with the state board of elections. Here’s information on how to do it. This is a really really bad precedent to allow to be set.
Yes it is. There is nothing to stop campaigns from hiding huge, unusual expenses in a petty cash account and then avoid scrutiny of it until long after the election unless somebody draws attention to it.
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