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DPVA Is At It Again
By Greg L | 9 February 2007 | Virginia Politics | 6 Comments
The Democratic Party of Virginia and their candidate committees just can’t seem to get over their urge to break the rules when it’s in their interest to do so. Again.
Back in early November I reported on a scheme that involved violations of campaign finance laws and postal regulations by Jeanette Rishell’s campaign committee and the Democratic Party of Virginia. In that little escapade, Jeanette Rishell made a “contribution” to DPVA and DPVA sent out mailings on her behalf using their non-profit bulk mail rate, which violates postal regulations. Then she failed to report DPVA’s in-kind expenditure in a timely fashion and filed an intentionally misleading campaign finance report, which was later amended to reflect what actually happened. That little scheme should have resulted in DPVA losing their non-profit bulk mail permit and substantial fines for the Jeanette Rishell campaign.
I pulled Jeff Dion’s campaign finance statements after hearing about some DPVA mailings made on his behalf, and he’s apparently done the same thing. On January 12th, Jeff Dion made a “political contribution” for $12,500 to DPVA which is an enormous expenditure considering that during this period all cash expenditures amounted to a total of $15,080.44. DPVA then sent out mailings on Jeff Dion’s behalf using their non-profit bulk rate mail permit, and Jeff Dion failed to disclose any in-kind contributions by DPVA as of February 9th despite the requirement that the law requires that large donations over $1,000 are reported within one business day. In every respect this is precisely the same behavior we saw previously by the Jeanette Rishell campaign, only this time a member of the bar has apparently engaged in a willfull violated the law.
Here are the violations as I understand them:
1. Jeff Dion provided money to DPVA with the understanding that money would be used to produce and mail campaign materials. On the campaign finance report that was filed on January 22nd by James Walkinshaw, this expenditure was identified as a “political contribution” which is blatantly a materially false statement.
2. The campaign finance report failed to report an in-kind contribution by DPVA which would represent the expendures made on Jeff Dion’s behalf. Mailings by DPVA were made sometime between January 12th and January 22nd, and disclosure of this expenditure is mandated by Virginia election law within one business day. As of February 9th, no disclosure has been made.
3. Jeff Dion signed the following statement on the campaign finance report, knowing that materially false statements were included in the report:
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 of January 1, 2007 through January 18, 2007, inluding all its accompanying schedules, is to the best of my knowledge and belief true, correct and complete.
4. Use of a non-profit bulk mail permit such as the one held by DPVA is not permitted when paid for by a third party according to the U.S. Postal Service Domestic Mail Manual section 703.1.6 and 39 USC 3626 (e). This is the second violation of this nature by the DPVA in two and a half months, and a revocation of their non profit bulk rate permit is clearly warranted.
5. The rules of professional conduct are potentially violated by an attorney when filing willfully false statements. Jeff DIon may face sanctions by the Virginia Bar Association for his conduct.
To the best of my knowledge, Jeanette Rishell was never sanctioned for her violations of campaign finance law, and the DPVA was not punished for violating postal service regulations. Should these latest violations not be properly addressed, it will indicate that Virginia’s campaign finance laws are meaningless and that abuse of the postal system may proceed unchecked. If this is the Virginia we want, where the law has no meaning, I invite those responsible for enforcing these laws to continue to disregard these flagrant violations.
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6 Comments
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Big deal
Republican Senators and Delegates do this all the time.
Republicans do have RPV send out mailers as in-kind expenditures, but they do NOT provide the funds to RPV in which to do so, which would be a violation. They also do not fail to report large in-kind expenditures in a timely fashion and vilate campaign finance laws, unless you’ve seen instances of this that I am unaware of.
And if following election laws is no “big deal”, as NFH suggests, why have campaign laws at all? How about just a free-for-all? The incumbent Republican majority would certainly benefit as a result.
This is a nothing issue so let’s not get carried away and call for campaign finance reform in Virginia, Greg. You want a real story, check out how many managers have been getting paid as contractors when they and their candidates should be kicking into social security like the rest of us poor schmucks. That’s Federal stuff baby.
OK, Democrats apparently think campaign finance violations are a “nothing issue”.
Let’s try that tack again in October, shall we?
To NFH I would say being a bully is not using your intelligence to benefit your cause. And to Ian, so you think 2 wrongs make a right? Grow up! Truth seeker,if you are really seeking truth, campaign finance reform in Virginia would be no threat, no big deal. As the word honesty means different things to different people, in truth it still menas “upright, dealing fairly” and all sides benefit when established rules are enforced and when broken, accountability is the consequence. Deal with it!