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Tough Choices For Jeanette Rishell
By Greg L | 3 November 2006 | Jeanette Rishell, Virginia Politics | 2 Comments
According to the State Board of Elections website, Jeanette Rishell still has failed to file a campaign finance report which discloses the in-kind contribution made by the Democratic Party of Virginia on her behalf last week. Reports of large contributions over $1,000 are required to be filed within 24 hours, as was noted yesterday.
Additionally, the Jeanette Rishell campaign has failed to amend their latest campaign finance report to accurately reflect that their “contribution” to the Democratic Party of Virginia was actually made to wholly or partly defray the expenses of that mailing. That “contribution”, violated postal service regulations which require that non-profit bulk mail by statewide political committees be paid for entirely out of state committee funds. Of course if you subscribe to the laughable proposition that campaigns will often “contribute” huge chunks of their available funds during the last week of their campaign out of the goodness of their collective hearts, I suppose it’s possible to conclude that the Democratic Party of Virginia did not actually engage in improperly “renting out” their bulk mail permit to Jeanette Rishell. You’d have to drink a whole lot of kool-aid in order to wash down a whopper like that.
So far the “explanations” offered have been pretty humorous. Many have failed to notice that state campaign committees are allowed to do this as long as they bear the full cost of the mailing. For some reason Delegate Jeff Frederick was singled out as someone who engaged in this despite the fact that VPAP demonstrates that he has never transferred funds to the RPV in order to defray the cost of an RPV mailer. What really was surprising was the laughable assertion that the Rishell campaign was a “qualified statewide political committee” under the postal regulations (not at all) and was authorized to make use of the DPV’s bulk rate permit. Unless the Rishell campaign was handling day-to-day political operations for the entire state, they’re not. The apolologist democrats are rapidly running out of straws to grasp on this one.
The Jeanette Rishell for Delegate campaign has a tough choice to make. Either they amend their campaign finance report and come clean on what they did, putting the final nail in the coffin containing DPV’s bulk rate mail permit which will almost certainly be revoked. Or they try to defend their ridiculous assertion that a struggling campaign which is lagging in campaign finances would suddenly fork over $8,200 to DPV as a contribution. Worth noting is that during the reporting period this “contribution” accounted for 54% of the campaign’s cash spending and 46% of their cash-on-hand at the end of the period. Will Rishell “take one for the team” and swallow a fine, demonstrating something less than the trustworthy behavior she claims she wants to being to Richmond? Or will she try to save her reputation, tell the truth, and watch the DPV lose their bulk rate permit?
It should be interesting to see what happens, especially if the local media finally decides to cover this story. So far their news cycle hasn’t caught up to the story, or they’re engaging in some selective “benign neglect”.
The clock is ticking, Ms. Rishell.
UPDATE: The following statement at the bottom of each campaign finance report may be relevant to this discussion:
I declare, subject to the provisions of section 24.2-1016 which is punishable up to a Class 5 Felony, that this report for the period _______ through _______, including all its accompanying schedules, is to the best of my knowedge and belief true, correct and complete.
_______________________________________
SIGNATURE OR TREASURER/CANDIDATE
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2 Comments
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Greg, Good follow up on this!
For someone with two “professional” campaign advisors, one of whom was imported from New Hampshire, the Rishell campaign seems to have surprisingly little idea of what it was doing. Maybe if she had actually paid Matt Harrison the $3,000 per month he says he is worth, he would have been more helpful.