O’Donnell Racked Up Campaign Debt – After The Election
This probably won’t get as much attention as the O’Donnell witch video, but it should. Apparently Christine O’Donnell was using 2008 campaign funds to pay for expenses after the November 2008 election. I hope the Coons campaign and DSCC are going through Christine O’Donnell’s finance report with a fine-toothed comb because there is a lot of material there.
Transcript:
TUCHMAN: We have documents right here that show Christine O’Donnell spent a lot of money on what appears to be personal effects, and it was not during a campaign, and it was campaign money. The spending of this money occurred three months after she lost to Joe Biden in 2008, a year before she announced she was going to run as a candidate in 2010.
Now, the FEC, the Federal Election Commission, allows you to spend money after a campaign to retire debt, but not to add to the debt. And she has lots of debt from 2008, which troubles a lot of people. They think it’s hypocritical, because — because she wants America to spend what it has. But let us show you some of these checks. You can decide for yourself if she should have written these checks from her campaign money. For example, a check for 475 bucks, she labeled it as mileage reimbursement. Remember, this is three months after the campaign is over. This means she drove hundreds of miles and she submitted this with campaign funding.
Also, $157 on a phone bill from Verizon Wireless; by all indications, this is her personal phone. Also, $28 at a gas station — the gas station in the town where she’s originally from — Moorestown, New Jersey. She still has family there. This is campaign money. There’s no campaign going on.
Six hundred dollars for her utility bill paid to Delmarva Power. Also, there are little piddly expenses, but increasing her debt. And these are very telltale. You wouldn’t need to spend this for any campaign, let alone a campaign that is not going on anymore.
$19 at a place called the Pike Lanes. The Pike Lanes is a bowling alley. That would pay for about eight games of bowling.
Also $26 for a meal at Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant — campaign money once again.
And then she even used campaign money for a $2.84 charge at Staples. In addition, she paid rent money with her campaign funding.
Now, the home that she lives in right now, the townhome, doubles as her campaign headquarters; she lives there some time. So do her campaign workers. But this money for her rent was paid during a time when she was no longer in a campaign.
Now, we can tell you that her detractors say she does this because she hasn’t had a real job for years. She has no source of income. She needs to live on campaign money.
COOPER: And who, during all this time, was the treasurer of her campaign?
TUCHMAN: This is really interesting.
Under FEC laws, you must have a treasurer when you’re spending campaign money. And according to the FEC document that we have investigated, for 13 months between July 2009 and between August 2010 while she was spending money, there was no treasurer.
The treasurer was Christine O’Donnell. That appears to have violated FEC laws, but the FEC has to determine that.
She was charging her 2008 campaign for gas, for mileage, for her utility bills and for bowling. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, since she reportedly only made $5800 in the whole year of 2009.
h/t Daily Kos
Tags: Christine O'Donnell, DE-Sen
She is a grifter and a fraud who illegally sever as her own campaign treasurer. The problem is voters do not act rationally. I am more convinced than ever that modern elections are all about emotion. It is the starsearchization of politics.
Find the voters hot button and jump up and down on that button while blocking out all substantive questions. That is how it is done and that means this race is a toss up.
You are right Jason-people are sheep and see all the attention she is getting so they will vote for because they see her in the news, not because she is a qualified candidate…her answer to everything is “We the People”…how does that solve any of our current problems????
My opinion of the typical voter Could not be lower right now. They want to be associated with the person they regard as a “winner” and flee from candidates that they think are “losers.” (Full disclosure: Obama benefited from that dynamic. )
That’s why I like the DSCC’s ad. It makes Odonnell look losery.
You nervous nellies are bummers. Remember, not all publicity is good. The scrutiny to Sarah Palin dropped her poll numbers a lot because she’s an idiot. O’Donnell is Sarah Palin without Palin’s record of accomplishment.
without Palin’s record of accomplishment.
hahahahahaha. Love it.
Alternet reports she paid her mother a bunch of money for “bookkeeping”! Does she even have a treasurer? Isnt that required under campaign finance law?
Well, you gotta admit that Christine isn’t a quitter like Sarah. Christine keeps her campaigns running even after the election is over.
A1, you have been on fire lately! COD really inspires your snark. 😉
She is a progressive, she had financial troubles before the recession, now that is vision
George Bush was George HW Bush without the resume. Just sayin’
Wow, she is in big trouble now.
I guess the real question is if the US Attorney’s office will do the bulk of its investigation before the Nov. election and make its findings public before then. That would be a real public service to the voting public, but I doubt it will happen that way. There is too little time before Nov.
And without Palin’s beauty queen title.
“Wow, she is in big trouble now.
I guess the real question is if the US Attorney’s office will do the bulk of its investigation before the Nov. election and make its findings public before then. That would be a real public service to the voting public, but I doubt it will happen that way. There is too little time before Nov.”
that, and Glenny poo will cry conspiracy theory… even if she is on tape and convicted by a jury.. it will still be the Obama SS out to destroy a good american they are afraid of.
Better to laugh than cry in most case, UI! 🙂
The Delaware Way in full tilt. Back in 2006 she filed for the Senate at the last minute with an out of state check for the wrong amount and the state GOP let it go. More reasons to dump the entire GOP leadership right down to the lowest hack.
We have several candidates this year who are double and triple dippers yet nothing is said. Heck, one has a family member in jail for embezzling millions from the state.
Delaware is forever messed up.
Jim DeMint is putting 250k into spots making hay out of Reid’s dumb. “my pet” comment.
I told you they would not slink off, but will make this race bloody in tooth and nail. The conservatives are making this thier Gettysburg. It is going to be nasty.
Yeah, well there’s going to be money pouring in but how many people know or care who Harry Reid is?
Good point. Running against Pelosi and Reid is preaching to the wingnut choir.
No, Pelosi and Reid are well known and they are wing nuts and incompetent wing nuts.
When jobs are gone and they ain’t coming back all the Liberal boneheads are goners.
Sadly, the GOP in Delaware is worse than the national Dems.
Someone who contributed to O’Donnell in 2008 needs to file a lawsuit.
“When jobs are gone and they ain’t coming back…” Seems to me that the Rethuglican platform is to give the OK for more outsourcing of jobs overseas.
Next! Now serving wingnut commenter # 500004.