Violations of Campaign Finance Laws by John McCain and Others by sarasile
(libertarian)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
I was just reading an article in today's (February 21, 2008) New York Times that was focusing on Senator John McCain's lapses of judgment and ethical violations both past and present. This is no doubt just the beginning of media attacks on McCain that will certainly increase when he and Obama (presumably) go head to head in the Presidential race this fall.
I will not go into details of the article but something it mentioned in passing was that McCain's Campaign Manager, Rick Davis, has been working without pay for several months now, since McCain;s finances and campaign nearly tanked several months ago. Apparently Mr. Davis is still working without pay even though McCain has raised plenty of cash recently.
This is a clear violation of the laws on campaign contributions that McCain was instrumental in passing. There is a limit of $2300 per cycle that an individual can contribute to a presidential campaign. A professional who is donating his professional services is making a contribution in kind and must have the fair value of that time imputed as campaign contributions.
From what I have read that would be about one week of service at the pay scale of presidential campaign managers before that person would be over the limit. Yet there was not one word about this violation in the article.
Many of Rudy Guliani's campaign staff likewise worked without pay for several weeks at least before Guiliani threw in the towel on his presidential bid.
It seems that the rule-makers aren't bound by the rules they impose on us mere mortals. McCain in particular should be hoist by his own petard and called out on this issue.
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Posted By: Ivan from Oregon
Date: 2008-02-23 10:16:11
The old adage "power corrupts" should really read "immunity corrupts". Why do our public "servants" at all levels break the law? Because they know they can get away with it. Unfortunately "tar and feathers" went the way of the wild west.
