Thursday, 19 October 2006
Yarmuth's Smarmy Campaign
« Brawl in Miami | Main | Yarmuth's New Site Smells »First we had Yarmuth's team trying to sneak a paid staffer in as a volunteer in the Northup campaign, but claimed he did it on his own. Then they ran an advertisement that lied about Northup's voting record, but claimed that version of the add was never supposed to run.
Now we are treated to another ethical lapse from these guys. This time in a violation of the campaign finance laws. It appears that Yarmuth failed to notify his opponents that he had personally loaned his campaign more than $350,000. Currently he has contributed $390,000 to his campaign.
Ryan said candidates who have contributed more than $350,000 are in violation of federal campaign finance law if they don't make the notification.
Jennifer Steen, a professor at Boston College who authored a study last year on the amendment for the Campaign Finance Institute, said the law is "unambiguous" in requiring notification.
She cited a commission brochure clearly stating that candidates who contribute $350,000 to their own campaigns must notify their opponents.
That seems like a pretty clear violation of the finance laws to me. But again we are treated to a "nothing was done on purpose" type of excuse from Yarmuth.
Yarmuth said yesterday that Burke made a good-faith effort to follow the law and that, if his campaign needs to notify other candidates of his contributions, it will.
For me this is a clear pattern of unethical behavior employed by the Yarmuth campaign in this election. It almost seems as if they believe they are so superior that the actual law and rules of campaigning don't apply to them. But then again, that is what we come to expect from Liberals now a days. The ends justify the means.
Is this the type of "new" leadership we want in Washington?
