March 18, 2008
Sen. Carole Migden Receives $350,000 Fine for Campaign Violations
Somewhere Mark Leno is giggling, quietly.
Today, state regulators handed Senator Carol Migden a $350,000 fine for 89 -- 89! -- campaign spending and disclosure violations. The abuses reach all the way back to 2003, and include illegal personal use of campaign funds.
Ouch.
According to the Sacramento Bee:
The state's Fair Political Practices Commission on Tuesday released details of the San Francisco Democrat's transgressions, which also included misrepresenting spending, soliciting donations prior to establishing campaign accounts, and failure to adequately disclose contributions and expenses...[t]he 35-page FPPC report...said Migden on eight occasions between 2005 and last June spent a total of $16,317 in campaign funds that "conferred a substantial personal benefit" to her without having a reasonable "political, legislative or governmental purpose."
But, sadly, today's report does not reveal any delicious details as to how the money was spent.
San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno--who "initiated the FPPC complaint" and is, oddly enough, running against her in this year's election--accused Midgen of "charging $397,000 in political expenses" without not reporting how said money was being used. Midgen, however, claims the financial boo-boos were the simply fault of "volunteer bookkeepers unfamiliar with all of the state's finance reporting requirements."
Altered image credit: Brian Baer / Sacramento Bee file, 2007
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People on 'ludes should not drive.
I still can't believe we let her go for DUI.
You took drugs... don't you read the warnings on the prescription bottle?
They should fine her another $350,000 for going out in public with that hair.
The very sad thing is that she can legally pay her $350k fine with money from her campaign funds. (After she runs over someone and gets away with that too)
No Rob-she sould use the 350k$ for a new doo and lift.
It's an interesting story about Carole Migden, but why the picture of Phil Spector?
I saw her swoop a bunch of free chocolate candies into her purse at a recent holiday party, so this does not surprise me.
Even my mother tells me bad stories about Carole Migden.
Leno is wondering which fortune cookie he opened recently that revealed all of this damn good luck. His chief opponent is walloped with serious elections fines, and tonight he delivered a campaign speech to a room full of northern California newspaper heavyweights for a Society of Professional Journalists awards banquet. He approached putting the half-drunk room to sleep, but SPJ did give him an award, so all in all, Leno's sleepin' sweet.)
Ahh ... the irony of it all. I want some political candidates who will charge themselves with eliminating the pages and pages of unnecessary, micro-blah-blah laws that we are all expected to follow - and ignorance of all gazillion laws is supposedly no excuse for violating them.
Please, elected officials, we're not judging you by the volume of laws and what not you pass. In fact, I hope to see someone elected with a big machete to cut down on the bureaucracy .... I swear the more obscure laws are only there for folks to enforce on their enemies - not fair.
Is she a kleptomaniac? She definitely has issues.
Shouldn't she gracefully bow out now?