{"id":1651,"date":"2004-04-26T14:16:00","date_gmt":"2004-04-26T19:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/1651.html"},"modified":"2004-04-26T14:16:00","modified_gmt":"2004-04-26T19:16:00","slug":"if-its-not-money-laundering-what-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/if-its-not-money-laundering-what-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"If it’s not money-laundering, what is it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know I’m behind on this one<\/a>, but I think it’s a fun enough story to look back at, even days later.<\/p>\n

Republican Geoffrey Davis is running for Congress in Kentucky’s 4th district and is in a heated primary fight. (The winner gets to take on Democrat Nick Clooney, George Clooney’s father.) Naturally, Davis is trying to raise lots of money for the effort. Maybe a little too much, as the case may be.<\/p>\n

A generous donor named Quentin Nesbitt, who lives right across the river from Davis in Cincinnati, has already contributed the legal maximum to Davis’ campaign, but seemed anxious to keep donating anyway. <\/p>\n

Nesbitt gave an extra $5,000 to the Family First PAC. What’s wrong with that? Nothing, except the Family First PAC then turned around and donated $5,000 to Davis — on the same day.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe that’s not so bad, right? Maybe the Family First PAC was contributing to lots of GOP candidates in $5,000 increments. Wrong. The $5,000 donation to Davis was the first and only contribution the PAC made to any candidate this year. Complicating matters, Nesbitt’s $5,000 check to the PAC was the first and only donation it’s received this cycle.<\/p>\n

Can you say, “illegal money laundering”?
\n
\nNaturally, everyone who hears about this is jumping on it. Public Citizen has already filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.<\/p>\n

Craig Holman, legislative representative for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, said in a statement: “Every appearance is that these groups are working closely in tandem with each other and Mr. Nesbitt to evade the contribution limits.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Davis’ primary opponent is getting in on the fun, too.<\/p>\n

In an interview with reporters, Kevin Murphy, Davis’ opponent in the May 18 GOP primary, demanded that Davis say whether he or his campaign helped coordinate the Nesbitt contribution to Family First.<\/p>\n

“I call on Mr. Davis to take some responsibility here,” Murphy said. “I’d like to know what the Davis campaign knew about this scheme, when they knew it, and I’d like to know \u2026 how were these arrangements made?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, for me, the real fun is always hearing the defense spin. The candidate’s been caught in a pretty compromising position. Here’s when a qualified communications pro earns his or her salary.<\/p>\n

Here’s the full extent of the Davis campaign’ spin<\/a>, the day after the FEC complaint was filed:<\/p>\n

“It’s quite clear it is politically motivated. It’s 26 days before a primary,” Davis, a Boone County business consultant, told the Enquirer’s editorial board Friday.<\/p>\n

“We have done nothing wrong,” Davis said, vigorously denying the allegations. “This is a baseless charge.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s it? No explanation as to why a PAC that hasn’t contributed anything to anyone would give Davis $5,000 the same day it got $5,000 from one of his biggest supporters? Have to say, that’s not a good sign.<\/p>\n

Of course, when a candidate is really in trouble and has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, it’s time to play “The Other Guy Is Worse” game<\/a>. Two days after the FEC complaint was filed, Davis wanted to turn attention to Kevin Murphy, his primary opponent.<\/p>\n

Davis said two of Murphy’s contributors – Thomas Griffin and Rick Elrod – are under federal criminal indictment for alleged environmental law violations in Georgia. Both work for Northern Kentucky-based Griffin Industries, an animal rendering and recycling company that is a client of Murphy’s law firm. <\/p>\n

The two gave a total of $4,500, Murphy’s campaign records show. <\/p>\n

“Kevin Murphy should not accept campaign contributions from clients who are under criminal indictment,” Davis said in a statement. “I call on Kevin Murphy to fully refund those contributions.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If there was an innocent explanation for Davis’ contributions, he’d probably have shared it by now. The fact that his primary opponent has some questionable donations of his own isn’t exactly a response to the controversy.<\/p>\n

Somewhere, Nick Clooney is smiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know I’m behind on this one, but I think it’s a fun enough story to look back at, even days later. Republican Geoffrey Davis is running for Congress in Kentucky’s 4th district and is in a heated primary fight. (The winner gets to take on Democrat Nick Clooney, George Clooney’s father.) Naturally, Davis is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}