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      Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

      Raise the curtain.

      Campaign finance complaint filed against Democratic state House candidate


      By dennislennox, Section News
      Posted on Tue Jun 03, 2008 at 06:57:43 PM EST
      Tags: (all tags)

      A formal complaint alleging campaign finance violations by Central Michigan University professor Nancy White, a Democrat who is challenging state Rep. Bill Caul (R-Mount Pleasant), was filed earlier today with the Secretary of State's office.

      White used her office space and other taxpayer-funded resources to make her campaign announcement in a recent edition of the Central Michigan Life student newspaper.

      As a lawyer and someone who teaches students the law, White should have known the Michigan Campaign Finance Act prohibits the use of taxpayer "funds, personnel, office space, computer hardware or software, property, stationery, postage, vehicles, equipment, supplies, or other public resources" for partisan political purposes.

      The proof?

      Central Michigan Life ran a photo of White in her CMU office. The photo also showed a "Nancy White State Rep. Dist. #99 Western Midland County, Isabella County" political sign, which does not include the applicable paid for disclaimer as required by statute.

      It also appears that the would-be politician used public resources -- software, paper, a printer and computer -- to produce the sign, which was rather simple and featured a two-color logo on a plain standard-size piece of paper.

      Michigan's campaign finance law establishes clear guidelines for what can and cannot be done when operating a campaign, and the statue is explicit in prohibiting the use of taxpayer "funds, personnel, office space, computer hardware or software, property, stationery, postage, vehicles, equipment, supplies, or other public resources."

      Besides being illegal, what White apparently did is highly unethical for someone whose specialization is "ethics in law."

      The complaint asks the Secretary of State to not only fully and thoroughly investigate White's campaign, but to also establish administrative guidelines and rules clarifying what taxpayer resources, if any, White and other state employees can use in a campaign.

      If charged by the SOS, White faces a misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail or a face of $1,000.

      < By Any Means Neccessary | Dingell, Miller barking up wrong tree on Korean trade >


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      Those pesky disclaimers (none / 0) (#2)
      by Nick on Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 07:09:58 AM EST
      Campaign manager academies across the country... day 1... DON'T FORGET YOUR DISCLAIMERS or someone's going to call you on it!

      Oh come on. (none / 0) (#3)
      by LookingforReagan on Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 08:48:47 AM EST
      What are a few violations of the law when you are a Democrat Liberal Socialist? Everyone knows that laws are made to keep Republicans in line. Laws don't apply to the special folks in the America Hating Party. When are you going to learn?

      I've seen much worse, but still bad (none / 0) (#4)
      by Republican Michigander on Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 09:07:39 AM EST
      Disclaimers matter. The worst I saw was the MEA pretending to be the local school district union when they sent a mailing without a disclaimer and without their East Lansing address.

      I'm not sure this was "highly unethical" in this case, but it is very bad judgment.

      Mainstream media coverage (none / 0) (#5)
      by dennislennox on Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 01:19:14 PM EST
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