Posted on 08/22/2004 8:07:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Secretary of State Kevin Shelley personally coordinated his 2002 campaign fund-raising efforts and communicated regularly with a businesswoman now being investigated for allegedly diverting taxpayer funds to his political coffers, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Several current and former government and campaign employees said Shelley was deeply involved in fund-raising, perhaps more than anyone else on his campaign team, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
According to a Shelley spokesman, Shelley physically took possession of campaign checks given to him by Julie Lee, the San Francisco real estate agent linked to $205,000 in questionable contributions to his political account.
In prepared statements, Shelley has said didn't know the donations were potentially tainted, saying he does not "accept contributions that are illegal, inappropriate or tainted."
The Chronicle said Shelley's active participation in fund-raising raises questions about what he knew about suspect donations flowing into his campaign accounts.
Shelley's campaign contributions are now being investigated by the FBI, the state Fair Political Practices Commission, the state attorney general and the state controller's office.
Under state law, it is illegal to hide the true source of a campaign donation, and it is illegal to use taxpayer funds for political campaigns.
The Chronicle has reported that between September 2001 and November 2002 Shelley received suspect campaign contributions from seven donors linked to Lee. Five donations were related to the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center, a nonprofit founded by Lee to serve immigrants in the city's Sunset District.
When Shelley was the Assembly's majority leader, he arranged a $500,000 grant to build a new community center for the organization, but the center was never built, the Chronicle reported.
The group paid three individuals and two companies a combined $168,750 for services related to the center's construction. Records show that within weeks of those payments, each recipient made $25,000 contributions to Shelley's campaign for a total of $125,000.
Campaign fund-raising experts say the checks were so large and the sources so obscure that it is improbable that questions weren't raised about them at the highest levels of Shelley's campaign, the Chronicle reported.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.