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"Is Fitch Living Out of Her Campaign?", Madison County Journal Aug. 23 Editorial
A deep dive into State Treasurer Lynn Fitch’s campaign finance reports over the last eight years suggests the Madison County resident could have been — figuratively and literally — living off campaign contributions and paying for everything from luxury hotel rooms to a Sirius XM subscription for her car with donor contributions.
Fitch wants to be Mississippi’s chief law enforcement officer, so these are important questions that must be answered, especially since her next stop would naturally be the Governor’s Mansion.
The campaign finance questions outweigh her intimate association with trial lawyers that’s being exposed in the runoff.
Even though her last campaign finance report was filed late, it shows that about 40 percent of what she raised came from trial lawyers with 70 percent of them from out of state. Receiving contributions from trial lawyers in and of itself isn’t illegal. But will she be in the pay-to-play game like Jim Hood?
So, back to the more critical issue of campaign finance that’s looming.
In 2017, the Legislature passed campaign finance reform to end the practice of politicians paying for personal expenses out of their campaign funds. And that’s a good thing.
Before the reforms, her campaign finance reports indicate the State Treasurer could have very well been paying her mortgage interest note for her Madison County home, but with limited details and limited requirements, it’s impossible to know for sure without seeing canceled check stubs.
Since 2011, Fitch’s campaign made nearly $200,000 in interest and principal payments to Trustmark National Bank despite a loan for Trustmark never appearing on her contribution list.
Fitch herself loaned her campaign $100,000 back in 2011 but didn’t indicate if that was a personal loan or a loan from the bank itself.
The biggest payment to Trustmark was made in 2012 to the tune of nearly $87,000, so that could plausibly be repayment of her loan to the campaign, though it was documented improperly.
During her time in office, Fitch has been involved in at least four personal transactions with Trustmark for property in Madison County, beginning in 2013 with a $100,000 line of credit on a house she was living in, according to county property records. A year later, the loan was increased to $150,000. In June 2015, the loan was satisfied in full, and in July 2015, she received a $388,000 loan from Trustmark for a house on Eastpark Street.
At least two campaign expenditures to Trustmark came within two days of mortgage transactions on her personal residence in Madison County.
Coincidence? It’s a possibility. But, let’s look a little further.
Fitch’s $388,000 mortgage was for 10 years with Trustmark. Had she received a 3-percent interest rate, the interest payment would have been around $900 per month. Beginning In January 2016, Fitch was paying loan interest to Trustmark with campaign funds between $812 to $931 per month in addition to principal payments scattered about, until June 2017, the same year reforms went into effect.
Fitch’s campaign was paying interest payments on a loan that was never documented on campaign finance reports that would be around the monthly interest expense on a 10-year mortgage.
Flash forward to 2018 and the present. There have been no more interest or principal payments to Trustmark Bank, but new expenses have appeared following the reforms.
Fitch has paid membership dues to the Mississippi Bar and Tennessee Bar out of her campaign funds. She either purchased or leased a vehicle from Watson Quality Ford, according to her 2018 filing and pays for her Madison County car tag, oil changes and monthly trips to a car wash out of her campaign funds.
This year, she appeared to opt for an upgrade to her stereo, spending over $100 a month for SiriusXM radio.
The campaign finance reform made it illegal for politicians to use campaign money for personal use. The funds can only be spent on expenditures “relating to gaining, holding or performing functions of public office.”
In addition, Fitch has spent thousands and thousands of dollars on gas and convenience store snacks since the finance reform passed, leaving us to wonder if she’s not trying to offset the monthly mortgage interest payment she can no longer use campaign funds to pay. She’s also spent thousands of dollars eating out in the metro and on gifts, though we don’t know who the gifts are for or what they were.
She doesn’t need to use her campaign funds to campaign because she’s been using state taxpayer dollars to do that her last eight years as Treasurer.
You won’t find a sign for an unclaimed property event without her face taking up half of the banner. The official state website for the office of the State Treasurer has been changed to www.treasurerlynnfitch.ms.gov.
Fitch has spent the last eight years in office using taxpayer funds to build her brand from DeSoto County down to the Coast. Maybe that’s why she failed to pay the bonds on time — literally the most essential duty with which her office is tasked.
All of this to say, Lynn Fitch wants to be the next Mississippi Attorney General and then it’s her turn in the Governor’s Mansion the way GOP politics work.
With what is at best a questionable campaign finance record, is Lynn Fitch the person who needs to be interpreting, defending and enforcing state law?
No matter the outcome of Tuesday’s election against the better qualified Andy Taggart, Fitch should answer for her campaign finance expenditures that make it appear she was living out of her campaign.
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Taggart for A.G., Madison County Journal Editorial, August 21, 2019
Other than missing the first bond payment in state history, State Treasurer Lynn Fitch mostly coasted through office neither hot nor cold, neither meek nor bold.
Fitch had one job — one job — and she failed to make a loan payment and now wants a promotion to Attorney General.
The liberal Democrats and trial lawyers have been pouring money into her campaign hoping to have a similar pay-to-play relationship with her that they currently enjoy with Jim Hood...
Even though her last campaign finance report was filed late, it shows that about 40 percent of what she raised came from trial lawyers with 70 percent of them from out of state. First Mike Moore, then umpteen years of Jim Hood. Mississippi has had enough.
Andy Taggart actually has the experience to be Mississippi’s next Attorney General.
Taggart is a practicing attorney with courtroom experience.
When Mississippi’s conservative leaders need a top legal mind — think the late Kirk Fordice, Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant — they call Taggart.
In the war on drugs, Taggart knows the difference between victims and perpetrators and will treat them that way.
Taggart always sides with the Constitution.
Taggart is a Reagan Republican. He ran the youth effort for Ronald Reagan in Mississippi in 1980.
When Democrats like former Attorney General Mike Moore fought Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice, Taggart’s brilliant legal mind was the tip of the spear for the first Republican governor since Reconstruction.
A young Taggart served ably as Fordice’s chief of staff. He’s not fake.
When Democrats like Jim Hood fought then-Republican Auditor Phil Bryant, Taggart led the legal charge.
Taggart knows his way around a courtroom. He is bold and aggressive in defense of liberty. And he isn’t looking for the next political job like Fitch always the opportunist.
Fitch had a lackluster two terms as State Treasurer. Let’s elect an attorney actually capable of getting things done. Mississippi needs bold, new, honest leadership, integrity and competence in the AG’s office.
On Aug. 27, vote Andy Taggart Mississippi Attorney General.
