End of year campaign finance reports were due by January 20, 2012, and of course, KWS filed hers late. It makes for some interesting reading.
It seems that a number of individuals and law firms with an interest in the captive insurance industry like KWS enough to give her money. Now mind you, captive insurance does nothing for the consumer. It isn’t to benefit Delaware consumers; captive insurance is insurance for corporations. It isn’t to benefit our state, and, despite her claims to the contrary, the captive bureau does not fill the state’s coffers. So why does KWS push the captive bureau so hard? Because it makes her donors (lawyers and law firms who work in captive insurance) more money. And in turn, they kick-back money to her campaign. Here are some examples:
Fitzgibbons & Company of Scottsdale AZ, donated $250 (company’s website)
Stephen Schwab, a lawyer from Chicago, who works for DLA Piper, gave $1200 (company website)
DLA Piper PAC gave $1200
Robert Holt Myers, Jr. of Bethesda, MD, gave $1200. He’s an attorney with Morris Manning & Martin, which has a practice in the captive insurance industry (company website) Myers appears to play both sides of the political fence, too.
Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLC, of Dallas, another law firm with an active practice in the insurance and reinsurance industry, donated $1000 (company website)
She also received a $1200 donation from the insurance commissioner of Louisiana, who happens to be a republican. Sort of fits in with her hiring a republican to run her campaign. Ooops. My bad. Italo Carrieri-Russo, the former president of the UD College Republicans, changed his voter registration to Democrat days before being introduced as her campaign manager. Speaking of ICR, he was paid $1500 for his partial month’s work.
Also noteworthy is that one Nicolas O. Biasstto, who has been rumored to be KWS’s paramour, not only gave her a maximum donation of $1200, but it appears that he also made a $132 in-kind contribution. I’ll leave it up to the election lawyers to determine if he violated the campaign donation limits.
Another person who’s being paid for campaign work is Joe Conner, Jr. You all know Joe. He posts on here sometimes, using his own name. He’s been on KWS’s payroll since April. My guess is that he earns his keep by trolling around our blog and bashing anyone who dares question what KWS does in office.
My biggest question surrounds a interest-free loan from the Estate of Daniel F. Harkin III &
Rolling Rock Road, in the amount of $10,000. This loan was made to KWS’s campaign account about a month after she won election. What’s interesting, and questionable, about this loan is that KWS is also executor of the Harkin estate. So she basically lent herself money from the estate. From Wikipedia:
Executor (female form: sing. = executrix, pl. = executrices) is also a legal term referring to a person named by a maker of a will, or nominated by the testator, to carry out the directions of the will. Typically, the executor is the person responsible for offering the will for probate, although it is not absolutely required that he or she do so. The executor’s duties also include the disbursement of property to the beneficiaries as designated in the will, obtaining information about any other potential heirs, collecting and arranging for payment of debts of the estate and approving or disapproving creditors’ claims. An executor also makes sure estate taxes are calculated, necessary forms are filed and tax payments made, and in all ways assists the attorney for the estate. Also the executor makes all donations as left in bequests to charitable and other organizations as directed in the will. In most circumstances the executor is the representative of the estate for all purposes, and has the ability to sue or be sued on behalf of the estate. The executor also holds legal title to the estate property, but may not use that property for the executor’s own benefit unless expressly permitted by the terms of the will.
I wonder if Mr. Hawkin’s will stated that KWS could loan herself funds to further her political career. Again, I’ll leave this one to the lawyers.
So, 60% of her donations have come from out-of-state, many from people or law firms connected to the captive insurance industry, and a possibly illegal loan that she has never paid back, even though she took the loan in 2008.