This campaign season has been rough, and I have been sitting around with my mouth shut most of the time. (Hard for some of my colleagues to believe). I have been practicing the
art of the "courage to be silent."
Some times it isn't even courage. When everyone around you is in a "feeding frenzy," you can decide to let them at it.
However, I was intrigued with all of the questions that still nag at me and other friends regarding the Scott McInnis plagiarism case. One of them came this morning in the form of Jason Salzman's post on where the money went that McInnis was paid by the Hasan Foundation..
It looks like some of it went through a company in which his wife was the registered agent. Red Flag!!
Remember the complaint filed in November of 2004 by my colleague Julie DeWoody with the Federal Election Commission. Julie was the Executive Director of the Colorado Democratic Party? The complaint had to do with a proposed violation of Federal Election Laws.
So here is the part of the content of the cover letter signed by DeWoody:
"I am writing to bring to your attention one or more violations of federal
election law by United States Representative for the 3rd District of the State
of Colorado, Scott McInnis and his campaign committee, Friends of Scott
McInnis, Inc. The violations arise out of the following facts:
Rep. Scott McInnis did not run a campaign for reelection to his House of Representatives seat in the 2004 general election.
1
Rep. Scott McInnis, according to media reports, announced in the summer of 2003 that he would not seek another term. See November 10,2004 Washington Post article attached hereto as Exhibit 1.
Also according to media reports, Lori McInnis receives a salary from representative McInnis' campaign committee, Friends of Scott McInnis, Inc., to serve as campaign manager, and the campaign has also underwritten her cellphone and a campaign car during 2004. See November 11, 2004 Denver Post article attached hereto as Exhibit 2.
Mike Hesse, McInnis's chief of staff, confirmed that Lori McInnis "works from home, and parks the campaign car there" and that "she needed the car in May for events also confirmed that the McInnis campaign "pays the monthly bills for a
salary from Rep. McInnis' campaign committee, Friends of Scott McInnis,
connected to the Colorado Republican convention." See Exhibit 1. Hesse also confirmed that the McInnis campaign "pays the monthly bills for a conventional phone and a cell phone and an Internet connection. See Exhibit 1."
So the question is did McInnis pay his wife? Was the Scott McInnis Invest 2 LLC a holding company for his charitable contributions that he can't remember? Is there a pattern here?