September 13, 2006

Election Finance Registry Fails to Investigate Rep. Rinks' Questionable Campaign Spending

Vance Dennis, who is running against incumbent state Rep. Randy Rinks, D-Savannah, in the 71st state House district, which encompasses McNairy, Hardin, and the southern half of Decatur counties, wonders why the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance isn't investigating a series of high-questionable expenditures of campaign funds by Rinks. Dennis forwarded me the text of a detail-filled sworn complaint that the Registry summarily dismissed during its meeting today without fulfilling its obligation to investigate. Here is the text of the sworn complaint against Rinks...

From the desk of Ted G. Cook
Hard Rock Road Savannah, TN 38372

August 11, 2006
Tennessee Registry of Election Finance
404 James Robertson Parkway, Suite 1614
Nashville, Tennessee 37243

Dear Mr. Chairman,

What follows is another fine example of the fact that there is abuse of the Financial Disclosure and Campaign Financing laws in Hardin County and if history repeats itself, no one will wants to do their job, including your fine offices.

Our State Attorney General has opined, in Ag-Op 05-172, December 7, 2005, that the Registry of Election Finance has a duty to review all filed statements to insure compliance. The following sworn complaint will show that your fine offices may have neglected that duty, in that the allegations are obviously from the face of the filings.

Your attention to this matter would be greatly appreciated.

SWORN COMPLAINT

Pursuant to Section 2-10-108 of the Tennessee Code, I hereby file this sworn complaint against Representative Randy Rinks, State Representative for the 71st District, for violation of the requirements of Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code and Chapter 0530-1-1 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance. In support of this complaint, I would allege as follows:

1. In his 2005 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported a $15,039.92 expense payable to American Express for his monthly bill, without any further documentation or itemization of the expense. This expense report is in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code due to insufficient description of the disbursement.

2. In his 2005 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported telephone expenses of $1,167.34 to Access Int. Networks, $551.55 to Bellsouth, $2,507.67 to Cingular Wireless, $965.16 to Nextel, and $482.81 to Sprint, for total telephone expenditures of $5,674.53 for the 2005 calendar year. These expenses appear to be in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code because the expenses appear to be far in excess of what should be reasonably necessary for and incidental to the candidate's holding public office and/or campaigning for said office.

3. In his 2005 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported a $2,994.23 expense payable to Nashville City Club for his "monthly bill," without any further documentation or itemization of the expense. This expense report is in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code due to insufficient description of the disbursement.

4. In his 2004 campaign financial disclosure statements, Representative Rinks reported expenses of $16,901.72 payable to American Express for his monthly bill and utilities, without any further documentation or itemization of the expense. These expense reports are in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code due to insufficient description of the disbursement.

5. In his 2004 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported telephone expenses of $1,712.81 to Access Int. Networks, $166.26 to AT&T, $150.34 to Bellsouth, $1,371.65 to Cingular Wireless, and $1,622.49 to Nextel, for total telephone expenditures of $5,023.55 for the 2004 calendar year. These expenses appear to be in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code because the expenses appear to be far in excess of what should be reasonably necessary for and incidental to the candidate's holding public office and/or campaigning for said office.

6. In his 2003 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported a $7,594.44 expense payable to American Express for utilities, without any further documentation or itemization of the expense. This expense report is in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code due to insufficient description of the disbursement.

7. In his 2003 campaign financial disclosure statement, Representative Rinks reported telephone expenses of $985.51 to Access Int. Networks, $166.26 to AT&T, $895.29 to Cingular Wireless, and $901.32 to Nextel, for total telephone expenditures of $2,948.38 for the 2003 calendar year. These expenses appear to be in violation of Chapter 0530-1-1.04 of the Rules of the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Section 2-10-107 of the Tennessee Code because the expenses appear to be far in excess of what should be reasonably necessary for and incidental to the candidate's holding public office and/or campaigning for said office.

WHEREFORE, Complainant respectfully requests that the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance investigate the above-referenced reporting deficiencies and expenses, and, upon a finding of violation of the above-referenced statutes and rules, assess appropriate civil penalties.

Respectfully submitted,

/S/ Ted G. Cook
Ted G. Cook
Hard Rock Road
Savannah, TN 38372

Dennis emails that Cook's complaint was heard today, and dismissed by the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance. Says Dennis, "Mr. Cook advised me that the board said they couldn't do anything unless he could show some sort of fraud to them, despite the obvious deficiency in the filings and their duty to investigate. I was relatively sure this would happen, but it still irritates me to no end."

Me too, Mr. Dennis.

I'll forward this blog article to Rep. Rinks and gladly bring to you his response, if any.

I'll also be forwarding it to Trent Seibert.

UPDATE: You can read Rinks' campaign donations and expenditure reports here - just enter his last name, the year and the type of report you wish to view. You can't download the report as a PDF file directly, but if you Adobe's PDF distiller program, you can create a PDF file by "printing" the web page to your distiller program instead of your printer. Here are his 2003 campaign expenditures, his 2004 campaign expenditures and his 2005 campaign expenditures, all referenced in the sworn complaint, and his campaign expenditures so far in 2006.

I didn't spot anything highly odd in his 2006 campaign expenditures, though I do wonder why he returned $500 in contributions from Wright Bros. Construction, a Charleston, TN-based road-builder.

UPDATE: State Rep. Stacey Campfield blogs about Rinks' questionable expenditures:

One of the Nashville TV stations did a story about it back when the ethics wars were going on .When asked to disclose what he was paying for on the card he refused to tell. I know the with the City Club you pay for the food you eat at the club (No, I am not a member). If the food was eaten while in session or when the legislator collected per diem that should not be double billed.