Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Doesn't seem right

Yeah, this resignation business for Paul Broun is too fishy, and good for Bobby Saxon for calling them out on it.

As the article notes, something isn't right about Alysious Hogan resigning as Broun's chief of staff during the allegations of the congressman mismanaging his funds, and something isn't right about Broun's spokesperson, Jessica Morris, drawing her paycheck from the campaign simply because 'she enjoys campaigns.'

You don't want to say they're just out-and-out lying, but if their finances were all in order they'd just go ahead and release them rather than let this issue fester for another two to three weeks.

Just to put some things in perspective, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords from Arizona spent the most on franking, shelling out $234,000 in taxpayer money in 2007. In the first three months of 2008, Broun spent $110,000 and is on pace to exceed her expenditures by more than $200,000.

Again, it's preposterous to run as a fiscal conservative - and adamently refuse to stick up for local projects in your backyard based on financial reasons - and then spend all of your taxpayer-supported budget on tools to get reelected.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are certainly a lot of finagling going on with Broun's budgets, but I do think Jessica Morris should be paid at least in part out of the campaign. I live in Columbia County and Jessica Morris has by all appearances been running his campaign since about mid-April. A few weeks ago on Broun's pre-primary disclosure Ms. Morris had not yet received any reported salary payments from the campaign. Because of this I was outraged. It appeared at the time that Dr. Broun was paying his campaign staff out of his MRA. However, on the subsequent July quarterly filing Jessica Morris was suddenly paid over two months salary all one day (June 27). All though I was glad to see that Dr. Broun was apparently not paying his campaign staff out of his congressional budget I found it odd that Ms. Morris's salary for two entire months was paid all on one day. Had Ms. Morris not been paid at all for two months? Had she received congressional pay that she would be paying back and receiving campaign pay instead? Another Broun staffer who had told several people he was 7/8 campaign (the maximum share allowed by the house rules) since the beginning of June received only $1,450 (also on June 27) in campaignh salary.
If staffers are working on the campaign then by all means they should be paid from campaign funds. The odd timing of Broun's payments to his staffers are what make me suspicious. It seems like Broun was financing his campaign as much as he could from his MRA and perhaps changed course at the last minute when people began questioning how much Ms. Morris was working on the campaign versus official duties.

1:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Basically, unlesshe has a much better explanation than the one given it looks like Broun is a crook. But he's also "a man of Jesus", so I'm sure he'll get cut the requisite slack by many of the voters on the 10th District.

9:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Campaign staffers often don't get regular paychecks. It's a cash-flow thing.

Blake

11:22 AM  
Blogger Tommy Valentine said...

As the Director of Operations, I just want to say that we appreciate your concern. If anyone is eager to assist the Saxon campaign with our uphill fight, please contact me at tommy@bobbysaxon.com

10:01 PM  

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