Posted on 03/02/2004 12:07:46 PM PST by RepublicanLady
Tuesday, March 2, 2004 Filing criticizes Foxx's spending She says expenses linked to Senate, not congressional, run
By David Rice and Theo Helm JOURNAL REPORTERS
State Sen. Virginia Foxx continued to defend spending from her state Senate campaign yesterday as at least one complaint was filed with the Federal Election Commission saying that she used money from the state campaign to support her campaign for Congress.
Foxx's campaign opponents have questioned expenses paid by her state campaign committee because federal law forbids the use of nonfederal campaign accounts to make expenditures for federal campaigns.
Foxx, R-Watauga, has said repeatedly that she is running for the 5th District congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Richard Burr and is not running for re-election to the N.C. Senate.
Yet critics point out that reports filed by her congressional campaign committee show no spending on telephone, mobile phone or Internet service, and the state campaign account shows spending on all three.
John Whidden V, a retired safety consultant from Winston-Salem who sent a complaint to the FEC yesterday, wrote: "Her year-end (congressional) report does not reveal any expenditure at all for telephone expense. The Fifth Congressional District is composed of 12 counties, and I do not understand how a congressional candidate who has raised over $300,000 would not have a telephone for her campaign. However, her state filings show expenditures for telephone service during 2003."
Whidden's complaint notes that corporate political-action committees continued giving to Foxx's state Senate campaign late last year, and she attended a fund-raiser last month where donors were instructed to make checks payable to her state Senate committee.
"I also find it disturbing that Senator Foxx has continued to raise money for her 'Senate' campaign when she continues to declare that she is not running for the Senate, but only for Congress," Whidden wrote.
Whidden said in an interview that he is not affiliated with any of Foxx's competitors' campaigns, nor has he given money to any of them.
"I like to see candidates try to run a transparent campaign. It just seemed like some of the issues ... needed to be looked at," he said. "It's just a series of things. I just think it doesn't smell right."
The campaign of Vernon Robinson, a city-council member and another candidate for the Republican nomination in the Fifth District, said that one of its supporters had filed an FEC complaint as well. But the Robinson campaign could not provide documentation that the complaint had been filed.
Foxx said she would dispute any complaints to the FEC.
"We'll give them the facts," she said. "There's nothing else we can do."
The complaints were ploys designed to hurt Foxx's campaign, said Jack Hawke, a political consultant who works for Foxx.
It takes so long for the FEC to investigate complaints that they can easily be used as weapons, he said. "To me, it's a political maneuver," Hawke said.
Foxx said at a news conference at the Forsyth County GOP headquarters that two mistakes were made: charging a phone line and dues she paid to the Yadkin County Chamber of Commerce to her state Senate campaign, rather than to the congressional campaign. Yadkin County is not in Foxx's state Senate district.
She defended spending almost $34,000 last year - an off-year when she was not seeking re-election.
She said she spent about $6,400 on her state campaign before she announced that she was running for Congress. She said she spent $10,500 for consulting work and $5,700 for accounting work that was done in 2002 but not billed until 2003.
An additional $1,200 was spent to redesign a Web site for her state campaign and $1,800 was spent to buy a new computer, Foxx said.
That leaves about $8,400 - including the phone bill - for constituent services.
Foxx said that it was not unusual to spend $34,000 in an off-year.
She said that former state Rep. Lyons Gray spent about $56,000 in 2001 and about $41,000 in 1999, and Marc Basnight, the president pro tempore of the state Senate, spent about $130,000 in 1999 and about $148,000 in 2001.
"So saying it's unlikely ... is preposterous when you look at other people," Foxx said. "It's time to set the record straight."
She said that it was unfair for the media to focus on her.
"(My opponents) are raising tons of money," she said. "I've raised about$300,000. You're talking about $2,000 (in question)."
Robinson, one of Foxx's most vocal opponents, also has a state campaign committee still operating.
His is from his 2002 campaign for the N.C. House of Representatives.
Campaign-finance records show that the committee made payments totaling $1,149 in late 2003 to such groups as the Forsyth County GOP, the Alexander County GOP and the Davie County Republican Party.
Robinson said yesterday that the payments were completely different from Foxx's. No one has raised the issue of spending money on the Republican Party or party auxiliaries such as the Forsyth County Republican Women, he said.
"It's a real stretch to say that's a furtherance of your campaign for Congress," Robinson said.
He said that Foxx's expenses were for items that directly benefited her congressional campaign.
Robinson also said that his state committee needs to be changed into an account for a city council re-election campaign. He said he had no explanation for why that had not been done.
"But it needs to be done," he said. "It's an accounting oversight, basically."
Meanwhile, in a Republican primary that continues to draw blood, the chairman of the Forsyth County GOP expressed frustration after workers from different campaigns argued in front of reporters about whether they could tape Foxx's news conference.
Hawke said he didn't want other campaigns to record and misrepresent what Foxx said.
This is "not for folks who don't know how to campaign," Hawke said to Chris Younce, the campaign manager for Robinson. "For all we know, you'll doctor up the film."
"They should have had that discussion before the media was present," said Bill Miller, the chairman of the Forsyth GOP. "We're damaging our party."
As a result, Jay Helvey's campaign director agreed not to tape the news conference, and Younce left the news conference with his video camera.
Give the correct title for the article: "Filing criticizes Foxx's spending", not what you originally put, "Virginia Foxx & Vernon Robinson With Questionable Fundraising"
And if you want to maintain some credibility, don't spend all your time on FR attacking other candidates and woofing for your own. And if you're going to attack, at least make fair charges.
The rules of the forum are to use the original title. You don't have much posting experience, only showing up for 5th district threads and all, so you can be forgiven for that.
But "fair" has nothing to do with your assessment.
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