Posted on 03/06/2011 5:53:31 AM PST by Moseley
Violations of campaign finance laws were committed NOT by Christine O'Donnell, but apparently instead by former Congressman Mike Castle, the candidate for U.S. Senate in Delaware, as revealed in his Federal Election Commission campaign finance reports.
Unlike O'Donnell who was clearly a candidate for office in January 2009, Mike Castle did not file a Statement of Candidacy until October 19, 2009. As a result, none of Mike Castle's expenses from January 2009 through October 2009 would qualify as legitimate campaign expenses -- at least if we apply the Delaware Republican Party's own standards from their attacks on Christine O'Donnell. Castle's supporters of out-of-touch old guard Republican insiders set the standard while accusing O'Donnell. Should we then apply the DEGOP's own standard or not?
Starting in December 2009, the Delaware Republican Party spread rumors that Christine O'Donnell had a supposedly suspicious pattern of campaign expenses in her 2009-2010 campaign finance reports. A dossier of smears on O'Donnell raised "questions" -- that is , overtly claimed -- that Ms. O'Donnell used campaign funds for personal expenses. "The Email," February 1, 2010.
Yet O'Donnell's "pattern" was similar to Mike Castle's "pattern" of campaign spending, except that O'Donnell declared herself a candidate (technically, exploring a candidacy for office) in January 2009, whereas Mike Castle did not actually become a candidate until October 2009. (Actually, O'Donnell's pattern of campaign spending in early 2009 is more obviously proper than Castle's.)
The DEGOP's lies were based upon the falsehood that O'Donnell was not a candidate for office at the time the expenses were incurred. In fact, she undeniably was.
From January 2009 through June 2009, Mike Castle used campaign funds for:
$587.64 for food & beverage at CAFE GELATTO, paid on February 6, 2009. (Remember: Castle's Statement of Candidacy was filed October 19, 2009.)
$2,588.88 for food & beverage at the Capitol Hill Club restaurant in Washington, DC, paid between March and May 2009. Again, Castle filed his Statement of Candidacy in October 2009. The U.S. Senate campaign was up in Delaware, not in Washington, D.C. However, Castle was a Congressman in D.C., eating out in Washington, D.C. off of campaign contributions.
$245.77 at WHO'S COOKIN' for FOOD & BEVERAGE, paid on 3/27/2009
$594 at FLOWERS BY YUKIE between January and March 2009.
$219.80 at HAPPY HARRY'S on 1/14/2009
$13,499.35 in unspecified credit card charges, creating a "slush fund" for Mike Castle's expenses that are not identified on FEC reports.
$873.70 at the TIMBERLAKE restaurant down in Washington, D.C., not in Delaware where the campaign was, paid on 12/19/2008. Castle was of course a sitting Congressman at the time. However, his personal expenses for food down in Washington, D.C. should not be paid out of his campaign funds up in Delaware. Congress was in its Christmas recess on December 19, 2008. Food related to either Castle's Congressional activities or personal living in Washington, D.C. should not be paid out of campaign funds for the election up in Delaware.
$120.00 at GALLAGHER & GALLAGHER for food & beverage paid on 4/29/2009.
$1,298.67 to COMCAST cable from January 2009 through June 2009 -- again months before Mike Castle was actually a candidate.
$500 for gala tickets to the Chowder & Marching Club -- IN MARYLAND! This was not an event in Delaware.
$546.25 to AMTRAK for travel from March 2009 to May 2009 - before Castle was a candidate.
Mike Castle -- although an elected official for almost 40 years -- has somehow amassed a personal fortune worth over $3.5 million. Perhaps we've discovered part of Mike Castle's road to riches: Pocket his congressional salary, then live off of campaign donations for his personal living expenses? At least if those accusations are hurled without any foundation at O'Donnell, might we ask the same questions about Mike Castle? Or are questions about certain people off limits?
While Christine O'Donnell was clearly a candidate for U.S. Senate in January 2009, so that all of her campaign expenses are legitimate, it is Mike Castle who fails the very same test advanced by the Delaware Republican Party. The smears spread by the DEGOP were then handed to Ginger Gibson at the Delaware News Journal, who published a March 2010 hit piece smearing O'Donnell. These charges were later picked up by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in a criminal complaint based on David Keegan's affidavit.
On March 20, 2009, O'Donnell filed a "Statement of Candidacy" for the 2010 U.S. Senate race with the Federal Election Commission. In December 2008, O'Donnell posted a message on her 2008 campaign website urging volunteers to keep their campaign signs for probable use in 2010. In January 2009, O'Donnell began informing supporters privately of her status as an exploratory candidate for the 2010 U.S. Senate race. Her campaign finance reports show trips to Washington, D.C., to meet with donors and potential supporters, as well as meetings in Delaware with potential donors and supporters.
The Statement of Candidacy is normally filed only after a person has been a candidate for a while, and exceeded a $5,000 threshold of donations or expenses. So O'Donnell was a candidate prior to March 20, 2009. Castle, however, exceeded the $5,000 donation / expenditure threshold very early in 2009, but Castle did not file his Statement of Candidacy until October 2009. Therefore, Castle did not have the intent to be a candidate until October, and from January through September 2009 was using campaign funds for personal purposes. At least, that is the very same argument used by insiders in attacking Christine O'Donnell.
The Delaware Republican Party started in December 2009 -- weeks after Karl Rove's attempts failed at co-opting the tea party movement for Mike Castle -- to circulate smears, likes, and slander against Christine O'Donnell. The "DEGOP" was obligated to remain neutral among primary candidates for the Republican nomination until the State GOP endorsing convention held March 13-14, 2010, in Rehoboth Beach. Instead, the DEGOP not only launched assaults to sabotage Christine O'Donnell to help left-wing Mike Castle (a fiscal liberal and social liberal), but did so with savage personal attacks which were lies and slander.
With this kind of dishonesty by Tom Ross and the Delaware Republican leadership, it is time to start over with a fresh team of leadership for Delaware's Republican future.
What is internet/cable going for in Washington DC? Is $200/mo reasonable, or was someone getting premium channels/pay per view?
But you see, Castle was allowed to do that kind of stuff. He was part of the ruling class, the establishment. Rules are for the rabble, the little people. And since O’Donnell didn’t know her place (lose in the primary), well, she had to be attacked.
This needs to be thrown in Tokyo Rove’s face every time he appears in public.
It will end up as either a third party, or a SUCCESSFUL
RINO hunt.
This just proves that there are still FAR TOO MANY RINOS in the BUSHES and we have to do a better job cleaning them out and fumigating the House and Senate.
I thought Castle was a democrat?
Can it be illegal for a democrat too?
With public sector employees benefits targeted as the cause of many states' deepening financial problems, Republicans should expose that, as New Castle County Executive, Chris Coons Voted To Open A Pension Loophole That Allowed County Employees To Buy Into The Pension System, Or To Transfer Credit From Other Government Service. Coons Saw To It That His Buddies And Top Staff People — And All Six Of The New County Council Members And Their Staffs — Were Grandfathered Under The state pension Loophole Which Has, And Will, Cost Taxpayers Millions Of Dollars.
QUESTIONS REPUBLICANS SHOULD ASK Are Coons' Delaware political cronies not only helping themselves to pensions, but also double dipping, working in government jobs, and/or collecting other government checks, like disability (as Bell, Cali scammers did)? We know for a fact that vote-crazy pols extend their financial tentacles across the board, in order to get elected.
=========================================
QUESTIONS REPUBLICANS SHOULD ASK Does the New Castle County executive handle the county's insurance? EXAMPLE In federal court, an insurance broker (in another state) colluded with officials in a massive bribery scheme:
-- Padding insurance contracts by $500,000 to $600,000 a year;
-- Several hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from the insurance broker were funneled to the officials in exchange for support of the insurance contracts;
-- The purchase of an apartment as a favor to one official;
-- About $8,000 a month in payments to the official to keep the insurance contacts going;
-- A $20,500 Rolex woman's watch given to the official as a gift to an unnamed district employee;
-- A $35,800 Rolex men's watch was given to the official;
-- The insurance broker paid various personal expenses of the official, including the pay down of a $20,000 home equity line of credit; $12,747 in appliances; $5,850 for a plumber; and $13,592 to buy appliances for a relative.
-- The insurance broker was charged with stealing $216,000 from the muni for a nonexistent wellness program for muni workers. ...........the insurance broker is alleged to have lied to the school's insurance carrier, falsely stating that the muni authorized the insurance carrier to pay fees on behalf of the muni from its medical claims bank account for health care related programs and services that never existed. Charges including money laundering, conspiracy, forgery and theft by deception.
REFERENCE In 2004, while campaigning to become New Castle County County Executive, Dem Chris Coons promised not to raise taxes. He then raised taxes three times. Delaware voters are entitled to know if Chris Coons has financial designs on taxpayers and if Chris Coons intends to use his US Senate seat to aid his cronies...... as he did when he was New Castle County Executive.
No he was a Republican Congressman, wh was favored to win the seat handily, but lost the primary to O’Donnell.
Karl Rove is a communist you will soon see the light.
Thanks for posting this.
Isn’t that rich!
Mike Castle is a fraud and Chris Coons is a fraud too. These idiots always claim the opposition is doing what they themselves did.
What a post - makes me sick. How many politicans are claiming their cable bill is for CNN and MSNBC so it is political? Give me a break if you and I tried that with the IRS we would be laughed all the way to the jailhouse...imagine the penalities and intreste payments. Yet Rangel, Castle, and I bet some folks we like, are sucking off the campaign cash tit, while laughing at us working folks.
Well, Well, Well.
What do we have here? A law breaking RINO Bastard.
“This needs to be thrown in Tokyo Rove’s face every time he appears in public”
Don’t hold your breath waiting for Hannity to do it.
The problem is that so many Republican primary voters don’t know how to fumigate.
DE voters believe in higher taxes and always have, according to their voting records.
Actually he really is a Republican.
But there really ain't much difference up there in the party elite.
Christine O'Donnell like Sarah Palin is an interloper and must be destroyed.
Don't forget, most of the campaign laws were written to keep the interloper out. Not to police the elites.
Oh, one of those who dissed the party by running after losing the primary? (for the good of the people of course /s)
I hope she runs again in the future then!
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