December 3, 2007

Cooper Cashes Out

State Sen. Jerry Cooper is asking the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance to reduce his $120,000 fine they TREF levied against him for stealing nearly $95,000 from his campaign account, over two years and 23 separate checks, pocketing it for his personal use. A letter from his lawyer to the TREF says Cooper does not challenge the Registry's findings in the case, but says Cooper simply does not have the ability to pay the fine. The lawyer also says Cooper plans to retire when his term ends, which means at the end of 2008. Tom Humphrey at the Knoxville News Sentinel has the details.

The Cooper case points out a couple of glaring weaknesses in state campaign finance laws.

If the TREF doesn't agree to reduce Cooper's fine - and my reading of things from having been there when the TREF voted for the fine is that they're in no mood to reduce it significantly and certainly not below the amount Cooper stole - Cooper can, by retiring, avoid ever having to pay even a dollar of the fine.

The TREF's only mechanism to enforce its fine is a state law that prohibits a candidate from filling for election if they have an unpaid TREF fine. If Cooper doesn't file to run again, they have no way to force him to pay the fine.

It's also worth noting that in Cooper's latest quarterly campaign finance disclosure said his campaign fund had approximately $205,000 cash on hand. Just imagine if Sen. Cooper today wrote himself a single $205,000 check from his campaign account and deposited it in his checking account. What would be the repercussions? Not much.

The TREF, by law, can fine someone no more than $10,000 per violation of state campaign finance laws. They only could fine Cooper $120,000 previously because he took that money via 23 separate checks. They could have fined him $230,000.

If Sen. Cooper were to take all of his remaining campaign cash in a single check, he could not be fined more than $10,000. In short, he could steal all of his remaining campaign funds, pay the $120,000 fine, plus an extra $10,000, and wind up with a $170,000 profit.*

Because of those weaknesses, stealing one's own campaign funds is currently a potenitally profitable and unpunishable crime in Tennessee. The bigger the violation of state campaign law, the less power the TREF has to do a thing about it. That needs to be changed.

* Assuming Cooper's already spent the initial stolen $95,000, he would still have $75,000 left at the end of this second illegal but virtually unstoppable and unpunishable transaction. As Stacey Campfield points out, if Cooper took his remaining campaign funds and then used them to pay his TREF fine, he would then be free and clear to run for re-election, thanks to Tennessee's weak campaign finance law.

See also: Bob Krumm.