Hopefully the Last New Adventures of Old Christine
Christine O’Donnell, the Delaware manifestation of the nationwide Tea Bagger Freakout over having a black President in 2010, was found guilty of federal election law violations last week in the case the FEC brought against her for using campaign contributions to pay her rent in her Greenville Place apartment home. The FEC is seeking a $25,000 penalty. Yesterday, in an unofficial capacity (i.e. not an official settlement offer in writing), O’Donnell and her campaign committee offered to settle the matter for $10,000.
My back of the envelope reveals the following: Her apartment home was used as an “campaign office” for approximately a year, from early 2010 to March 2011. Her rent was $1410 a month. That is $16,920 for twelve months. She supposedly reimbursed her campaign committee $770 a quarter for the premises, or four payments of $770, or a total of $3080. I don’t know the rules here about using a residence as a campaign office, like are the campaign and candidate in her personal capacity supposed to split the rent during the relevant time period? Or if the office space is a residence, is the candidate on the hook for the whole thing? From these questions, the she could owe in terms of rent anywhere between $5,380 (assuming a split in rent between the campaign and O’Donnell minus the $3080) or $13,840 (assuming that the campaign is fully on the hook minus $3080). In other words, I think the $10k offer is reasonable, the government should just take it and be done with her (assuming of course my reasoning and math is correct, and it may not be).
Q: Since Ms O’Donnell was found guilty of federal election law violations for using her apartment home as a “campaign office”, could the Delaware GOP also be considered for a similar charge for allegedly using their former state headquarters as former Delaware GOP Executive Director John Fluharty’s “Flop House”?
Federal law does not allow for a candidate to live in the campaign office and pay rent. That’s why credible Federal candidates all have separate office space.
She claims the FEC told her you could live in your campaign headquarters but there are no records of her ever contacting the FEC about that issue. So by law, she’s on the hook for the entire rent and the utilities. You forgot the utilities, including cable.
Her FEC reports are missing from the FEC’s website, but I found this:
https://delawarerepublicanrecord.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/tossing-your-money-down-the-christine-odonnell-money-pit/
According to Christine O’Donnell’s most recent FEC filing for the April, May, June reporting period, a big chunk of that money went to paying her living expenses.
Out of the $55,930 dollars that Christine O’Donnell spent on her campaign in that 3 month period, $7,158 of that went to pay her phone bill, her electric bill, her cable bill and the rent on the townhouse in Greenville Place that doubles as her campaign headquarters. The cable bills were $158, $87.90, $135, and $96.21, indicating charges beyond just a simple internet connection…
If you multiply the $7158 by 4 (for 4 quarters in a year) you get $28,632.
People don’t contribute to campaigns to financially support the candidate’s lifestyle, they donate to support the candidate’s campaign. Allowing her to walk with a small payoff will do nothing to prevent her, or other candidates from doing the same thing in the future. These laws exist to protect donors, their donations, and to instill some degree of integrity to the process.
I say make the witch pay.
And to think this is the kind of candidate the Republicans put forth to replace others who could win a state wide election..
“People don’t contribute to campaigns to financially support the candidate’s lifestyle, they donate to support the candidate’s campaign.”
I realize you’re talking about normal people, but when it comes to religious zealots, I think you’re wrong. If GoFundMe had existed, they would have contributed to pay her living expenses. Preying on anti-abortion zealots is sleazy, but I figure they all get what they deserve.
Donald Trump is merely Christine O’Donnell written large. Or rather, yuge.