Friday, November 16, 2007

Bell Sues Perry Over Illegal Donations


Democratic candidate for governor in 2006, Chris Bell, has filed suit against Governor Rick Perry. The suit accuses the Perry campaign of failing to properly report some very large campaign donations ($1,000,000) in the last month of the 2006 campaign.

In October of 2006, the Republican Governor's Association (RGA) gave two $500,000 donations to the Perry campaign. The Perry campaign reported the donations as coming from a PAC. The problem is that the RGA is not a PAC, but a 527 group. There are stricter reporting requirements for a 527 group, which the Perry campaign did not comply with.

Perry's spokesman called it a simple paperwork error, and referred to the lawsuit as "sour grapes". Bell's spokesman replied, "What a load of hokum, hooey and balderdash. Obviously, they can't explain this obvious violation of state elections law and have to resort to the same 'shoot the messenger' tactics that didn't work for Tom Delay and won't work now."

The reason for the stricter requirements for 527 reporting is so the public can know who is giving large donations to the candidates. It is to keep the candidates from hiding the source of huge donations. And it looks like that is exactly what has happened with these two donations. Perry's campaign tried to hide the source of the two $500,000 donations.

The source was Houston homebuilder and Rick Perry supporter, Bob Perry. On October 6, Bob Perry sent the RGA $1,000,000 and the RGA sent Perry a check for $500,000 20 days later. On October 31, Bob Perry sent the RGA another $550,000 and one day later the RGA sent Perry another $500,000 check.

I doubt if this made much difference in the outcome of the election, but that makes little difference. The way the Perry campaign handled these huge donations was illegal. They obviously didn't want the public to know where the money came from. Of course the Perry campaign says it was just an odd coincidence. Sure it was!

If you believe that , I've got some oceanfront property in Amarillo I'll sell you real cheap.

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