Here are the June & July campaign finance reports for the Madison County Supervisors elections. In a nutshell, they are a complete, and I do mean complete joke and are not worth the paper they are printed on. Few candidates are reporting anything, itemizing contributions is a novelty, and one incumbent didn't even bother to file one. Some observations from the little information available:
-John Bell Crosby took in $23,300 for the year. The June report states $10,000 came from Warnock employees and their family members. His opponent raised $6,200 year to date.
-District 2 candidate Ronnie Lott has raised only $3,050 this year but spend over $35,000 on this race, including $33,000 to G. Williama Marketing. G. Williams does direct mail and billboard advertising.
-D.I. Smith reported $37,121 for the year in contributions. His opponent Gerald Steen reported $36,149 for the year in contributions but for some strange reason can't seem to tell anyone where the money is coming from. Interesting.
-Karl Banks did not submit any reports in June or July.
8 comments:
Damn KF. This is an awfully hard post to read/follow. Maybe its my comptuer, but can't scroll thru the reports in any reasonable manner.
Couple of comments - that you may have made, but I can't read your post.
John Bell Crosby - incumbent - $10k from Rudy Warnock and company. Obviously, Rudy wants to keep a third vote on the BOS in Madison.
Harrington campaign has no idea how to properly file a campaign finance report. Shame - he should be a good candidate - government contractor/engineer - but cant figure out or hire someone that has the basic sense of how to fill out the forms.
Ronnie Lott - great campaign. Can spend tens of thousands of dollars, but no receipts to back it up.
Gerald Steen - same thing. Has reported $30K+ in contributions, but fails to say where it came from. This is the most interesting of all - at least he admits that there is someone financing his campaign, and tells how much it is, but won't tell where it came from.
I'll forgive Harrington - first time in the mix - and does not appear to be hiding anything. But Steen - he's an elected official and should know what the law is. Obviously, he doesn't want to tell Madison County voters how his campaign is being financed. But since he wants to continue the Elvis administration, keep Warnock and Hamer on the payroll, bet I can guess where his money is coming from. Too bad the AG in this state doesn't have the balls to make him follow the law and report it!
I wonder if the rule requiring candidates to file timely financial reports is complaint enforced. It seems pretty easy for someone in the Circuit Clerk's office to keep a checklist and spend a few hours each month during an election cycle to make sure the law is being followed, but they may be waiting for a complaint before they start the enforcement process. Bill Billingsley
Hello all,
My name is Leland L. Hennington, P.E. and I am running for Madison County Supervisor District 1 against John Crosby. The content of the campaign finance reports discussed above is one of the many reasons that I am running. When a seating Madison County Supervisor takes Money from the current County Engineer and then votes to award the same individual MILLIONS of dollars in Contracts, at very least, ETHICS of the current Supervisor should be questioned. I have turned down Campaign contributions from other firms and individuals that may have an interest in doing business with Madison County for that very reason. I do not even allow them to work on my Campaign. I am an open book. All of the contributions made to my Campaign have been recorded for the public to see and comment on.
If given the opportunity, I will openly and fairly represent the interest of the Citizens that put me in office, not for my own personnel gain.
Leland L. Hennington, P.E.
Leland has my vote!!!
Kingfish! Where can we go to complain and who is responsible for checking the candidates reports to make sure they file? Who is responsible? I want to know where heralds money is coming from and they all need to follow the rules!
12:04, I called the Secretary of State's office and the lady there called the AG, and it's pretty much hopeless until the legislature puts some teeth into the law. The rule is that the candidate may be fined $50 a day for 10 days after the report is due. That's an easy one - he pays the fine and moves on, but in reality no one ever calls him on it so he doesn't have to pay the fine. Once the election is over he has to get his financial reports caught up before he takes office or he doesn't get put on the payroll. By that time he doesn't really care who sees his financial reports, or he files false reports that can't be proven. The system has far too many flaws in it, but the people who need to fix it are the ones who think it's a nuisance. The best way to stop these crooked candidates is to support their opponents. Bill Billingsley
I'm sure that Leland Hennington is a good guy and is qualified to be a county supervisor. He's obviously the mayor's pick for this race, and he needs to understand that if he wins the election he will be a one term supervisor. If you take a look at Louise Spivey, Bill Banks, Doug Jones, and John Bell Crosby...these were all the mayor's pick. They were all one term supervisors. If you look at Leland's election report you see that his campaign manager is Steve Vassallo. Steve did the same for John Bell Crosby in the last election, hiring teenagers to stand at street corners touting John Bell's candidacy and "dogging" Doug Jones.
Also, I wish Kingfish would look into the situation where the City of Madison Chamber of Commerce is having "Men's Night Out" at Rita Martinson's opponent's house next week...the week before the primary. Last year's "Men's Night Out" was held the first week of August, and for some reason was moved to the last week of July this year....and being held at a House of Representative candidate's house. I'm not sure Chambers of Commerce are allowed to be in the political arena like this one appears to be. At the minimum...they should have scheduled this event to take place after the primary.
Post a Comment