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.
Campaign-finance records do not reflect any payments from Murtha to LBK Game Ranch or the company’s president, Bill Kuchera, for the use of the site for the Aug. 21 fundraiser. The records also contain no mention of in-kind donations from Kuchera to Murtha’s campaign for the event.
Federal election law allows private citizens to host fundraisers at their residences, and campaigns are not required to reimburse the hosts for costs associated with these types of events or to list the donation of space as an in-kind contribution in campaign-finance records.
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.
Ethics. (h/t Reynolds)
GOV. Paterson was being described as a dead man walking yesterday by even some of his closest advisers, who said the devastatingly low ratings in a new Quinnipiac University poll – reflecting a broad sense of an administration in meltdown – are too great to overcome.
“It looks like it’ll be Gov. Cuomo,” sighed a longtime Paterson loyalist
Words like “unprecedented” and “unbelievable” were being used to describe Paterson’s collapse in popularity – but many on the inside said they weren’t all that surprised.
Those who’ve known Paterson well for decades say he’s always been unfocused, self-centered, often lazy – and, at times, clownish and immature. More often than not, these traits have resulted in his having a disorganized and dysfunctional staff as a senator, Senate minority leader and now as governor.
Paterson, who spent 20 years as a part-time legislator, was also long known for his delight in extra-office activities including late-night partying, the excesses of which account for the bouts of dizziness and exhaustion that have dogged him for so long.
“He’s a lifestyle politician: He loves the trappings, the planes, the Mansion, the bodyguards, the travel, the national TV time – not the work,” said a Democratic activist who has known him well.
As I said the other day, he sounds like a perfect fit for the Obama administration.
SNL really ought to know better than to lampoon a black blind man. It’s so unbecoming.
Also related: Burge’s “Tale of Asse-Hatte” reprised at Big Hollywood
Evil Superannuated Partisan Christian Leader Involves Himself in Politics, Rebukes Pelosi:
The Vatican Press Office released a note this morning detailing part of the conversation which Pope Benedict XVI had with Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Vatican insiders inform LifeSiteNews.com that such releases are always phrased in diplomatic language and thus the correction of the Speaker who fancies herself a faithful Catholic despite her abortion advocacy can be taken as a rebuke.
The text of the note reads: “His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.”
Pimp for the ummah loses ride, life in collision with garbage truck
WaPo Heave-Ho: Roland Burris has to go
Karaoke CinC: Teleprompter of love (Say what?)
There must be justice and karma for Murtha to go down. Am I wrong for wanting that?
LBK Game Ranch? They killed innocent animals in cold blood!
Democratic corruption?!??!?!!
OH NOES!!!!!!
Am I wrong for wanting that?
If loathing Murtha is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
LBK Game Ranch
[Spinal Tap]It’s like the LBJ Ranch, but one higher. It’s there if you need that extra push over the felony cliff. [/Spinal Tap]
Nothing to see here people, move along, move along.
/troll>
Out of the frying pan, into the fire once more, go the New Yorkers.
I for one do not have any sympathy left for the citizens of NY and CA. They keep electing these bastards they deserve everything they get.
You know, I’m beginning to think that Democrats aren’t as ethical as they claim …
One of my favorite Pelosi quotes besides “The most ethical Congress evahhh”
Nancy Pelosi: We’re being governed by decree. The president decides on a figure, he sends it over and we don’t even get a chance to look at it much before we’re called upon to vote on it.(edit)
WaPo Heave-Ho
The NY Post called. That headline writer job is yours.
Mr. Pink,
Some of us in NY don’t vote for the bastards that are getting re-elected, but are hopelessly outnumbered…
Kind of the same way as when I lived in the DC suburbs…
“Mustafa Abdul-Qawiyy”
You know, they’d better cool it with the pimp-talk; it might be seen as denigrating one with a more, ahem, colorful multi-cultural heritage…
I mean, we all know that there have been many generations of Arabs residing on Staten Island and in Brooklyn, right?
Yeah, well, as they would say here, Fuhgeddabowdit!; with an accompanying, descriptive, equally colorful, hand gesture…
This is totally racist. New York is just like the Nazis. And Boooosh!
Not to mention the Democrats, trying to get rid of one of the only two African American governors and the only African American senator. Watch your back, O!
FREE DAVID PATERSON!
The funny thing? Roland Burris has generally been considered one of the more honest politicians in Illinois. Also, he’s certainly no Mensa member, but he is not considered one of the dumber members of the local political class, either.
Seriously, if Obama wants to bring the troops home from Iraq and sic them on Springfield and Chicago’s City Hall, I could consider… okay, maybe complimenting him.
because I don’t have no money? What kind of senator talks like that? Good Christ. Is Chicago street trash patois normative now?
During the Sixties the Left could be divided into two quite different groups.
The “Hippies”. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. Been there, done that, probably still have the tie-died t-shirt in the basement somewhere.
The “New Left”. Larger than life, charismatic, sociopath leaders and the grim, pinched face, Mao jacketed, earnest hive workers for the great cause of socialism.
Nowadays it is convenient to merge both together in speaking of the Left of those days. They are, however, still distinctive subgroups of the Left.
Paterson is of the “hippie” subtype as was/is Bill Clinton. They are the less dangerous ones.
Obama, Hillary Clinton, Pelosi, Reid, et al are of the “New Left” type. They are very dangerous. Even to each other in the end, as the godhead they aspire to become, only has room for one.
Paterson, who spent 20 years as a part-time legislator, was also long known for his delight in extra-office activities including late-night partying
It’s like why God invented Ronnie Milsap. So fat ugly hogs could get backstage passes too.