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Sen. Kyle’s “PR stunt”
Posted By katie allison granju
Bill Hobbs says Sen. Kyle’s proposal for tightening campaign finance fraud is nothing more than window dressing:
Democrat state Sen. Jim Kyle wants to lock the barn gate now that the horse has already escaped. He is proposing legislation that would require the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance to levy a fine equal to the amount a candidate steals from their own campaign fund. But of course the legislation won’t impact former state Sen. Jerry Cooper, the Morrison Democrat who embezzled nearly $95,000 from his own campaign account over a period of two years.
It’s just another empty PR stunt from Sen. Kyle, who only recently was lionizing Cooper and asserting - irony unintended - that the state Senate would be “a poorer place” after Cooper’s resignation - but now is trying to play catch-up on the issue of how to punish legislators who steal from their own campaign accounts.
Kyle knows that Cooper has more than $200,000 left in his campaign account, money that Kyle no doubt hopes Cooper will distribute to an array of Democrat legislative candidates in the 2008 election cycle.
Dec 31st, 2007
