It's a "culture of corruption" I tell you. I'm not naive. There are Democrats that are unscrupulous and campaign finance law isn't exactly the most cut-and-dry everyday sort of stuff to follow - but come on. Seriously.
Political Forecast has a great post on the recent folly that has befallen the Nussle Campaign for Governor '06 - and finally the
Iowa Democratic Party has got some fire in their belly. According to Political Forecast and the IDP:
The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board voted today to investigate gubernatorial candidate Jim Nussle's campaign for potentially violating state campaign finance compliance laws.
"We applaud the Ethics Board's decision to investigate the campaign filings of Jim Nussle. The board has confirmed our belief that the Nussle campaign engaged in potentially unscrupulous financial activities that misled Iowans. Iowa's campaign finance reporting laws were established to shine a light on the financial activities of candidates for public office, and this investigation will do just that," said Iowa Democratic Party Executive Director Mike Milligan.
Last month, the Iowa Democratic Party filed a formal ethics complaint against the Nussle campaign with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. There are three areas of concern that warrant an investigation into ethics violations:
1. Mr. Nussle's state finance report fails to show any in-kind donations from the federal "Nussle for Congress Committee," while six individuals were simultaneously paid out of both accounts.
2. The development costs of Nussle's gubernatorial campaign website may have been paid for by the congressional campaign account, with no record of an in- kind donation to the gubernatorial campaign account.
3. Three congressional campaign expenditures, totaling $33,839.69 for media-production, were made to McCarthy Marcus Hennings in 2005. The official announcement tour of his bid for Governor was accompanied by a video. However, in the gubernatorial campaign state report there is no report of video or media production expenses to McCarthy Marcus Hennings until two months after his announcement.