NRCC Screws the Pooch......and Robin Hayes

This evening, the DCCC will hold a fundraiser to help Larry Kissell erase the personal debt he acquired in his bid to help take our congress and our country back in 2006. His bid last cycle fell short by a mere 329 votes and Larry is working hard to improve his name recognition and to keep his positives high with the voters. Let's help Larry Kissell retire his personal campaign debt. If you go here and make a contribution, it will be matched two to one. Don't miss this opportunity to turn your $50 into $150 for Larry Kissell. Please note, that the matching will only count toward contributions received at this link. Contributions made to Kissell's 2008 campaign link will not be matched.

Larry Kissell is running stronger than ever. He polls within a point of Robin Hayes in the uninformed vote in the latest Anzalone-Liszt polls performed for Kissell. The informed vote - with positives read for both Kissell and Hayes - shows Kissell polling several points ahead of Hayes and outside the margin of error. This has the NRCC running scared and they are attacking early.

Recently the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) filed a formal complaint against Larry Kissell because his FEC paperwork wasn't as tidy as they thought it should be.

The National Republican Campaign Committee said Larry Kissell's campaign filings "show a pattern of inaccuracies and misrepresentations."

"Kissell's debt magically disappears, then reappears with no rhyme or reason as to how debt was paid or created," according to the complaint, signed by Elizabeth Beacham, chief counsel to the House GOP's political arm. "At a time when voters demand transparency of elected officials, Kissell's reports reflect a candidate who either a) is hiding something from the public, or b) is clearly incapable of filing accurate FEC reports."

Now, the NRCC chooses to hide from the public the fact that Congressman Robin Hayes, Kissell's opponent, has received at least 36 notices of possible violations from the FEC and many of these have come in the past two years. Six of these were second notices that had to be sent after Hayes and his campaign ignored or failed to respond to the first FEC requests.

As much as I have criticized Robin Hayes, I've not picked on him for his sloppy performance in the area of campaign finance reporting simply because I know it is a very common problem with campaigns. Apparently, I'm not the only one who realizes this. From the article in The Hill:

An election law specialist with Holland & Knight, LLP, Christopher DeLacy, said it is “pretty routine for all committees to have to file amended reports. Sometimes it’s significant and sometimes it’s not.”

Sure it's routine as we can see by Robin Hayes' 36 notices from the FEC. For a while it was routine for Hayes to fail to comply with FEC requests.

Let's look at the year 2000. Robin Hayes received notices of possible violations from the FEC after every major filing of campaign finance reports except the pre-primary filing. Robin Hayes' April Quarterly had to be amended three different times. His irregularities in April - receiving excessive contributions from multiple donors. His irregularities noted after the July filing - receiving excessive contributions from multiple donors. Robin Hayes' irregularities noted after the October filing - receiving excessive contributions from multiple donors. I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a pattern here. Hayes' pre-general filing notice from the FEC also noted excessive contributions, the post-general filing notice from the FEC concerned the failure to file required 48-hour notices and the year-end filing notice from the FEC informed Hayes that his totals didn't balance with previous reports.

WAIT! Isn't that similar to what the NRCC is claiming is wrong with Kissell's reports? The NRCC's claims would be a lot more credible if their guy didn't show a huge number of possible violations of compaign finance law on his own compliance record. On top of all these noted problems by the FEC, the Hayes' campaign either intentionally ignored or failed to respond to all but the April notice from the FEC resulting in five second notices from the commission for the year 2000 filings. According to the NRCC's standards it appears that Robin Hayes' record of inaccuracies, irregularities and possible finance law violations

......reflect a candidate who either a) is hiding something from the public, or b) is clearly incapable of filing accurate FEC reports."

It sure looks to me like the NRCC is describing Robin Hayes with this comment.

Let's make Larry Kissell's debt disappear for good. Go here to really get the NRCC whining about something.