Thanks for the post and ping, Smooth.
To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.
Posted on 02/18/2009 10:55:12 AM PST by smoothsailing
| Leading The News |
| Fundraiser for Murtha may have broken campaign finance rules |
| Posted: 02/17/09 07:53 PM [ET] | |
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A $100,000 fundraiser for Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) held last year at a big-game ranch in Western Pennsylvania may have violated campaign-finance rules, according to campaign-finance experts. Under that rule, a married couple can host a fundraiser in their home and spend up to $2,000 without triggering any campaign-finance disclosure laws. Single people may spend up to $1,000 of their own money on these events. But campaign-finance experts say the Murtha fundraiser poses serious questions and may have broken the law because the event was held at a for-profit corporation. LBK Game Ranch owns the 161-acre ranch where the fundraiser took place, county property records indicate, so Murtha would not be able to benefit from the residential exemption even if Bill Kuchera occupies a house on the property. Use of corporate facilities, such as the ranch, have greater value and could benefit a candidate who is looking to make a fundraiser more attractive to would-be donors. “If [the house] is just a ranch lodge that is owned by the business — even if the Kucheras lived there — you would have a problem, especially if a portion of the lodge is used for the business,” said Trevor Potter, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission. “Corporations cannot make contributions. If there’s a corporate connection, the cost of the event must be reimbursed by the campaign at a fair market rate or it’s an illegal corporate contribution,” he said. The ranch includes a lodge for guests who stay overnight during their hunting trips. According to the property records, there is only one two-story house on the parcel, so it would be difficult for Kuchera to argue that the lodge and the house are separate. The other outbuildings present are sheds and a two-story metal structure. Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said the Murtha fundraising event took place Aug. 21 last year and was catered by Rizzo restaurant, a popular local eatery. He said campaign-finance records show a payment of $1,029 to Rizzo for the food provided. Mazonkey also said Murtha’s campaign did not pay for the use of the site because it was held at a residence, which organizers believed fell under the exemption in the law. “Their home is called a ranch, but it’s a private home,” Mazonkey said. When asked whether the home also houses guests who pay for hunting trips, Mazonkey said: “I can’t answer questions about what [the Kucheras] do in their private life.” Mazonkey referred those questions to Bill Kuchera, whose attorney, Dennis McGlynn, declined to comment. McGlynn donated $500 to Murtha’s campaign the day of the fundraiser, and a total of $800 during the 2008 election cycle. Jan Baran, an election lawyer at Wiley Rein, said if the location is used for something other than the Kucheras’ family residence, there is a fair-market fee that Murtha may be required to pay for the use of the property. The law provides for the use of sites such as a common room in a condominium building for fundraising purposes. In that scenario, a candidate would not be required to pay a fee for the use of the space to the private citizens hosting the event. “It depends on the facts and where the event occurred and who owns the place,” Baran said. “If [the Kucheras] have use of the hunting lodge for their personal entertainment, they might be able to claim that as an extension of the use of their personal residence.” The LBK Game Ranch is a focus of a federal probe investigating whether Bill Kuchera and his brother Ronald improperly used federal earmark money intended for their work at their contracting firms to purchase the property, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. The FBI raided the offices of Kuchera Industries, Kuchera Defense Systems and the homes of its executives and founders, the Kuchera brothers, in January. The firms are based in Murtha’s district, have won $50 million in defense contracts from 2001 to 2008 and have long-term contracts that could be worth more than $100 million over a decade. The Kuchera companies use the lobbying firm Ervin Technical Associates (ETA), whose chairman is longtime Murtha friend and former GOP Rep. Joseph McDade. For the last two years, the LBK Game Ranch also served as a welcome site for Murtha’s annual defense technology conference. It is unclear whether Murtha is a target of the federal probe. Mazonkey has said that federal authorities conducting the investigation have not contacted his boss and that he has no reason to believe he is a target of the investigations, but the Justice Department is not required to do so. Last week ABC News reported that the FBI had raided the Virginia headquarters of another lobbying firm with close ties to Murtha, PMA Group, back in November. Murtha, the powerful chairman of the Appropriations Defense subcommittee, has taken tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Kuchera companies and their employees as well as from PMA, its employees and their clients in recent years. Last year, he secured $38 million in federal earmarks for PMA clients, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. Bill and Ron Kuchera, their wives and several employees of their companies, as well as an ETA lobbyist and one of its clients attended the Aug. 21 fundraiser. In addition, at least four executives of PMA clients attended the fundraiser and cut checks to Murtha’s campaign. The FBI raided PMA’s Virginia headquarters in November. That portion of the probe is investigating whether PMA contributions were attributed to fictitious people or existing people who didn’t, in fact, make the donations. |
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Not that it matters to Murtha or any of the brain-dead zombies who keep voting for him . . .
Murtha Watch Ping!
The Democrat culture of corruption marches on. Yet for some reason that’s not a hot topic on the MSM.
MSM Response: “nothing to see here, move along, move along”
Rules and law no longer matter.
If Liberals would pay their taxes, there would be no deficit.
100% agree for Democrats in positions of power.
I don’t think his supporters are brain dead. They are fully involved recipients of the Pork Murtha is able to get. In other words they are as bad as he is.
Ping!
After all these years I find it hard to give Murtha the presumption of innocence.
Isn’t Murtha a retired Marine? If so, the Marines need to straighten this jerk out.
Sorry but the author must be mistaken, Campaign Finance Laws are for everyone BUT Democrats/Liberals.
Thanks for the post and ping, Smooth.
To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.
Quick, call in Jack Nicholson for a "Code Red!" And to Murtha's supporters issue a statement: "You don't want the truth, you can't handle the truth."
1. Hold illegal fundraising event before the election.
2. Spend ill-gotten funds to defeat opponents.
3. After the election, apologize and refund the money, claiming some procedural vagueness as the reason, instead of intentional law-breaking.
4. Repeat during the next election cycle.
-PJ
Believe me AB, I live very near Murtha’s district, and rightwing is correct, virtually all Murtha voters are braindead. Only a very small number benefit from Murtha pork.
This man is a disgrace to all Marines including my late father.
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