Lisa at Smith Watch discovers a red flag in Rep. Adrian Smith's campaign finance disclosures:
This then takes me to the most interesting link on the site. The "Expenditures" list. This is what his campaign basically wrote checks on. A lot is easily found to be campaign related. Then there were the things listed that raise eyebrows.
[...]
$141,666 to Neal Smith, Adrian's father. A look at the FEC forms say it's for payroll processing.
Smith, as you may recall, defeated Scott Kleeb in 2006 after being bailed out by Dubya, and possibly resorting to dirty tricks in the form of late-night robocalls. He took about $400,000 in campaign contributions from the Club for Growth. You think they'll mind that he may have kept a little for himself?
John at Americablog breaks down the numbers:
Looking at the FEC Web site, and at the electronic filings, this is how the $141,000 breaks down as direct payments to Smith's Dad:
In-Kind: Birthday Invitations: $219.35
In-Kind: Flight for two: $497.58
In-Kind: Office Space: $2525.00
Debt Repayment: $22,055.54
Payroll Processing: $116,389.38
Now, these numbers look terribly suspicious. $116,389.38 for "payroll processing?" As far as any of us can tell, Neal Smith sells insurance for a living. And, if he was really processing payroll for his son's campaign, he certainly wasn't giving him a very fair rate:
Hmm, eliminating all corporate payments, I condensed the list down to 38 individuals who received money from Smith, including his father. The Stunning result: Smith paid more than $116000 for the processing of 332 payments to 37 persons, totalling $235,000. That's about 50 cent for processing each dollar. Hmm, strange that Smith's dad offered his own son such a lousy deal, isn't it?
Consider the other big expenditures by Smith's campaign:
- $38,181 to Nancy Bocskor. She's a professional campaign fundraiser who has taught seminars at....get this....YALE UNIVERSITY!
- $1,116 to Dogs 'R' Us, Richmond, VA. Okay, so a search says they sell hot dogs, italian sausages, trout, ribs, etc. That much money on that kind of fare...that's a lot of weiners to be swallowing.
- $534,921 to Greener and Hook, Arlington, VA. Their motto is "Driving public opinion through Strategic Communications." Their a Republican communications firm that handles TV, Radio, and print.
- $70,753 to Dan Huber, who was Adrian Smith's campaign manager. That's quite a paycheck.
- $10,504 to Miss Negin Kordbacheh, Washington, DC. A search shows that this was listed as a "salary". Miss Kodbacheh has also been on the RNC payroll and has written articles for the Orange County Iranian-Americans. Don't know what capacity she had with the campaign though.
- $22,848 for Adrian Smith. Did he actually get paid by his campaign? Then what with the over $10,000 attributed to being contributions by the candidate for his own campaign?
Kyle at the New Nebraska Network has more:
It's hard to imagine what legitimate purpose there could possibly have been for the total disbursements of more than $116,000 to Neal Smith for this mysterious "Payroll Processing." To a suspicious mind, that has to sound like either a deliberately vague catch-all for a lot of different payments or else a pretty clear cut case of the Smith family keeping some of the controversial Club for Growth's money for themselves.
So, wait, it seems a little sketchy. But is there any criminal wrongdoing here? It's unclear, but it definitely merits a closer look:
Of course, these payments by the campaign might all be entirely on the level, but they just open the door to so many possibilities for corruption as the line between a campaign's accounts and a candidate's personal income all but disappears. As the San Diego Union-Tribune reports:
It is illegal to spend campaign funds for personal use, but it is not illegal to use them to pay family members who provide "bona fide services" at fair-market value....
Although paying family members with campaign funds is not an uncommon practice in Congress, election watchdogs say it is controversial because it can be difficult to measure the quality and quantity of services being provided....
The issue of paying campaign funds to family members gained national attention [in 2005] when it became public that [resigned House Majority Leader] Tom DeLay, R-Texas, had paid more than $500,000 to his wife and daughter since 2001...DeLay was indicted in Texas on unrelated charges of conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme.
In Western Nebraska, it takes a whole lot of bona fide services to reach a fair market value greater than $140,000. Remember, we're talking about a Congressional District with 4 of the 10 poorest counties in the nation. This is a sum big enough that it can't help but raise eyebrows and invite a much higher degree of public scrutiny.
Kos just gave Smith Watch a front page plug today, and this is a good illustration of the reasons why. The grassroots movement here in Nebraska didn't die when Scott Kleeb lost that race, it just found new avenues to use. (And I suspect if Kleeb runs for something in the near future, the grassroots movement will be right behind him again). Right now, it's all about holding our elected officials accountable. That's the first step toward defeating folks like Adrian Smith, or Jeff Fortenberry, or Lee Terry, in 2008.