Allen Co. Prosecutor Karen Richards, a Republican, has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate whether Fort Wayne mayoral candidate Matt Kelty (R) broke the state's campaign finance laws by failing to disclose the source of nearly $160,000 in loans for purposes of financing his close primary campaign against Nelson Peters. Fort Wayne Observed reports Richards chose a former Adams Co. prosecutor, Daniel Sigler, to investigate Kelty after a complaint was filed by Common Cause with her office following Tuesday's split decision along party lines by the Allen Co. Election Board not to pursue charges against Kelty. Ironically, FWOB notes that it was Sigler who investigated campaign finance irregularities of former Mayor Win Moses, which resulted in Moses agreeing to resign his office. Moses later was reappointed to the office by Democratic precinct committeeman and went on to become a state representative. Moses later nearly lost his seat to an upstart challenger, Matt Kelty. That election outcome was subject to a recount which declared Moses a narrow winner over Kelty.
FWOB also interviewed Nick Hess, the chairman of Common Cause, about the group's decision to file a complaint against Kelty. Mr. Hess told FWOB, "I'm not saying 100% affirmative it was a crime but it ought to be investigated." "Mr. Hess said that he believes the actions of the Kelty campaign corrodes the public's right to know the source of campaign funds. Allen Co." Prosecutor Karen Richards should be applauded for her move today. She could have simply ignored the complaint and let the issue die. By appointing the special prosecutor, she has raised the possibility that Indiana's campaign finance laws might be enforced as written, something that has failed to happen too often in the past.
4 comments:
Years ago I listened in rapt attention to the Watergate hearings about how the Finance Chair of the Republican Party, Maurice Stans, shuffled all kinds of big money around to conceal the donors for Nixon and the Plumbers. The modern campaign finance laws were passed precisely to eliminate this covert skullduggery.
What Kelty and Rost are doing Ft. Wayne is an obvious attempt to circumvent the spirit of those laws. They had hoped to keep the cash source secret. They didnt want the voters to know who had a strong financial interest in the candidate. Shame on them!
None of this would've een necessary if the Allen County Election Board had done their job correctly.
Is Allen County becoming the Republican disgrace, that Lake COunty used to e on the other side?
Rig any election however you can?
I do not understand this: if the election board's decision were a coin-toss...why not err on the side of voter knowledge and disclosure?
Good for Common Cause and for Karen Richards. Maybe the law will mean something after all.
read more @
http://x-wire.blogspot.com/2007/06/keltygate-special-prosecutor-to.html
ask the Allen GOP about the $148,000 dollar loan to persons unknown in their last finance report. Interesting coincidence that the amounts are the same. also, the $10,000 allegedly embezzeled by a local GOP operative.
It all adds up- and is worthy of further investigation- this is only the tip of the iceberg.
As former Attorney General Richard Thornburg(?) once said "Gentlemen, this is "the Mother of All Indictments".
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