November 12, 2007

More Questions for Sen. Cooper

State Sen. Jerry Cooper faces a hearing before the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance this week (Nov. 14th) regarding his illegal diversion of $95,000 in campaign funds to his personal bank account several years ago. Registry officials ought to expand their probe beyond just those transfers and ask Sen. Cooper some hard questions about his campaign account today.

Cooper's last campaign report showed a current balance in his campaign account of about $200,000. Given that we now know the prominent Democrat senator illegally withdrew $95,000 from his campaign account several years ago, without disclosing it on his campaign finance reports, the question is this: Is Cooper's current reported campaign account balance accurate, or does it overstate the true balance by $95,000?

Or did Cooper put the $95,000 back into his campaign account at some point between the original illegal diversion and now?

If Sen. Cooper did put the money back into his account, did he report it? If he did but did not report it, that would constitute a campaign contribution into his account that he, illegally, did not report. If he did put the money back, that would raise other questions - such as, where did Cooper, whose personal financial problems apparently led to him taking $95,000 of his campaign funds for personal use, get $95,000 to put back into the account?

If he never put the money back, and never reported the $95,000 being moved out of the account, then his current campaign funding report would appear to be inaccurate - his current balance would actually be around $105,000.

The truth in this case matters, no matter whether Sen. Cooper intends to resign, to serve out his term or to run for re-election. If Sen. Cooper were to resign or not run again, he has the right to distribution his campaign funds to other campaigns and to the Tennessee Democratic Party.

If Cooper somehow collected $95,000 and slipped it back into his campaign account without reporting it, then the question arises of who gave him the money, and whether their contributions violated the limits.

On the other hand, if Cooper really has only $105,000 and not $200,000, that would make challenging Cooper, in a primary or general election, more attractive to potential candidates from either party.