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March 31, 2005
Rob Teilhet, Inc.
In 2002, when Sonny Perdue upset Roy Barnes, one of the ways he traversed the state to attend rallies, barbeques, Rotary Club meetings and the like was in his private plane. Kind of. You see, Sonny Perdue doesn't own the plane he flew around, a company he owns has the ownership. Every time Perdue took off it was like his company was giving his campaign an in-kind contribution, and because there are strict limits on how much individuals and corporations can give to a campaign, Perdue's many flights pushed his company over the limit and an ethics complaint is currently (slowly) working it's way through the ehtics commission.
A funny thing happened in the legislature. Someone added a provision to HB 48, the ethics bill currently on life support, that would make it legal for a corporation owned by a candidate to make unlimited contributions. Regardless of the politics of this sneaky addition, this provision is a bad idea.
Rep. Rob Teilhet (D - Smyrna) is one of the legislature's brightest rising stars. He got into the well today and said that if this law passed, nothing would stop him from starting Rob Teilhet, Inc. and then funneling money from that organization to his campaign. It's not hard to imagine the capacity for dishonesty and fraud. Rob Teilhet meets someone that desires to give his campaign large amounts of money, but he can only accept $5,000 under state law. So his consulting business -- Rob Teilhet, Inc. -- takes on a new client and gets paid gobs of money to be on retainer for that person, and then immediately transfers that money to his campaign account.
This provision alone makes a mockery of the so-called ethics bill. It could open up huge loopholes, and is a good example of how one sneaky politician's trickery can have many unintended consequences.
I will pretend to be a Democratic version of Jim Wooten and tell you what I know Perdue is planning to do. After this law passes, he will tell the ethics commission that even though what he did at the time was illegal, it was never the legislature's intent that the law be interpreted that way and now that they have clarified this matter the charges should either be thrown out or he should get a small slap on the wrist.
That is shameful, and the law should never be tinkered with to help out one individual in a jam, even or especially if he happens to be the Governor. Rob Teilhet, Inc. probably won't ever file it's papers of incorporation. But if this law passes can it be that long before Bill Stephens, Inc. or some other person with a history of questionable campaign accounting takes advantage of Sonny's loophole to enrich their own campaign and/or wallet?
Posted by Chris at March 31, 2005 03:04 PM
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