December 31, 2007

Sen. Kyle's Latest PR Stunt

Democrat state Sen. Jim Kyle wants to lock the barn gate now that the horse has already escaped. He is proposing legislation that would require the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance to levy a fine equal to the amount a candidate steals from their own campaign fund. But of course the legislation won't impact former state Sen. Jerry Cooper, the Morrison Democrat who embezzled nearly $95,000 from his own campaign account over a period of two years.

It's just another empty PR stunt from Sen. Kyle, who only recently was lionizing Cooper and asserting - irony unintended - that the state Senate would be "a poorer place" after Cooper's resignation - but now is trying to play catch-up on the issue of how to punish legislators who steal from their own campaign accounts.

Kyle knows that Cooper has more than $200,000 left in his campaign account, money that Kyle no doubt hopes Cooper will distribute to an array of Democrat legislative candidates in the 2008 election cycle. He's certainly not going to propose legislation that would impact Cooper retroactively and interfere with Cooper's attorney's effort to force the TREF to reduce its original $120,000 fine to less than $15,000, so that Cooper can retain an $80,000 profit for his theft.

Sen. Kyle's legislation would only fine candidates the amount that they stole. In other words, if they get caught, they break even and there's no real punishment - in effect, Kyle's bill will not do much to make it less attractive to steal one's own campaign funds.

Kyle's legislation is a weak attempt to play catch-up to a legislative proposal made two weeks ago by state Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, who announced he was having legislation drafted that would set the fine at $10,000 above the amount stolen.

Update: Upon reading Campfield's blog post on Kyle's legislation, I realized I was wrong when I said that Sen. Kyle's legislation would only fine candidates the amount that they stole. According to Campfield, under Kyle's legislation, the fine equaling the amount transferred to personal use would be in addition to the fine assessed for committing a Class 2 offense, which has a penalty of up to $10,000 or, if greater, 15 percent of the amount converted.

In other words, Kyle's proposed legislation merely copies a legislative proposal already floated by Rep. Campfield.