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A "Payday Loan?" |
February 3, 2010
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State Representative Steve King had his "Mr. Smith" moment today.
Unfortunately for him, there will be at least one other one.
The State House convened an Ethics Committee today to look into King's claims that his mileage reimbursements from State taxpayers weren't also reimbursed from some other source.
The committee was chaired by Nancy Todd (D-Denver/Arapahoe), and comprised Todd, Jim Riesberg (D-Greeley), Claire Levy (D-Boulder), Cheri Gerou (R-Jeffco), and Mark Waller (R-El Paso).
Waller opened the meeting by suggesting that the committee restrict its investigation to only the allegations in the ethics complaint that was brought against King by Colorado Ethics Watch.
After securing the committee's agreement, Waller and Gerou then went on to raise red herring after red herring.
Gerou suggested that King had just borrowed money from his campaign, and had since paid it back. She said, "He was just trying to make ends meet." (The Denver Post quoted Waller as saying that King had just given himself a "payday loan," but it was Gerou who first raised the issue.) The main trouble with Gerou's red herring is that the numbers don't add up. The amount that was taken out is more than what was put back. Waller raised a red herring of his own, questioning whether King had derived some advantage from the IRS by routing his personal expenditures through his campaign, as if it was OK to double-bill taxpayers and contributors if there was no tax advantage in doing so. Listening to the hearing, I didn't buy it. I don't think anyone else did either.
Neither issue related to the complaint before the committee.
Several members of the committee expressed frustration with King's written response, which apparently didn't address the specific charges against him, but sounded more like a whinefest about how big his district is and how many miles he has to drive. Since I haven't seen his response, I will refrain from further comment. I expect to be able to link to it sometime tomorrow, so please check back.
In public, King has called the investigation "an attempt to ruin his chances in an upcoming state Senate bid." Personally, I have been reluctant to think of the investigation in those terms. My wife, as she often does, recalibrated my way of thinking about the investigation. "Of course it's about his chances for Senate. If he turns out to be a crook, do you really think I want to vote for him?" As always, it's hard to argue with my wife's logic.
The "payday loan" thing was particularly hilarious to me, as King took two contributions last quarter from people associated with the payday loan industry (specifically, from "CASH AMERICA INTERNATIONAL, INC. MULTI-CANDIDATE PAC" and from Ralph Will of "MISTER MONEY HOLDINGS, INC."). Couldn't his buddies hook him up with some quick cash?
Actually, a payday loan would have left King in a world of hurt. The "Payday Loan" defense prompted a comment to another political blog by the Bell Policy Institute, an organization that has expressed serious concerns about the payday loan industry.
It's clear that unless the Republicans can flip a Democrat, this will be a purely partisan exercise. The two Republican members of the committee mounted a vigorous, if not relevant, defense of King.
Representative Riesberg brought the committee back to Earth after the "loan" question. He said, simply, "That's what banks are for, not campaign accounts."
I was particularly happy to see Riesberg on the committee. Being from Greeley, he understands what the mileage allowances are for. The other Representatives on the committee are from the I-25 corridor and don't get it.
Riesberg's comment was prescient. King might regret the "payday loan" defense being offered by his advocates. You see, King currently stands accused only of violating House rules. In defending King against the House rules, his advocates might be placing him in violation of State law. The Campaign Finance statutes on expenditures (CRS 1-45-106) are pretty specific about what you can do with your campaign war chest. Loaning yourself money is not on the list.
In New Jersey, we used to call that "money laundering," but it has nothing to do with the matter before the committee. According to a source who is familiar with the Legislature, in Colorado, it's actually called "money dry cleaning." We don't launder money here like they do in New Jersey. It makes sense that King might be confused, as he bills his dry cleaning to his campaign fund.
After an hour, the committee decided it needed more time to review the information before it. There will be another meeting on February 12 at 1:00 PM in House Committee Room 111.
None of this would be a problem, of course, if the Mesa County Democratic Party would simply find an opponent to run against King. That way he'd have to spend his money campaigning instead of (allegedly) putting it into his pocket.
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On Monday, the Western Slope Conservative Alliance (WSCA, aka "teabaggers") issued a press release inviting media to its candidate forum, which will be held tomorrow at 6:30 PM at City Hall.
The WSCA likes to bill itself as a nonpartisan organization. In fact, right at the bottom of its press release, it wrote,The Western Slope Conservative Alliance is a non-partisan organization dedicated to finding solutions to today's challenges by empowering the individual and limiting the role of government. The trouble with that self-characterization was evident higher up in the press release, however. WSCA wrote,The three candidates for House District 54 are Ray Scott, Robert Hislop, and David Cox. But that's not quite accurate. There are actually four candidates for District 54. The missing name is Claudette Konola. She's a Democrat.
Nonpartisan my ass.
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