It looks like an admission of wrongdoing. After certified fraud examiner Greg Wright filed an ethics complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics complaining about Sen. Richard Lugar using his official Senate office in Indianapolis as the registered office for Lugar Stock Farm, Inc., Sen. Lugar filed an amendment to the Secretary of State corporate filing on February 22, 2012 for the family-owed farm changing the registered agent for the company to his brother and listing his brother's address as the registered office for the company. The amendment came just three days after Wright filed an ethics complaint against him. Wright notes that even the elections complaint filed against Lugar challenging whether is an inhabitant of Indiana eligible to run for the Senate was mailed to him at his official Senate office in Indianapolis because the state had no personal address for him in Indiana at which he could receive official mail. Lugar's official office should be receiving nothing pertaining to his re-election campaign.
Thomas R. Lugar is now the registered agent, and his home at 8391 N. Illinois Street in Indianapolis is now listed as the registered office for the address. Sen. Lugar is still listed as the company's president and principal at his McLean, Virginia home. Lugar has been using his official Senate office at 10 W. Market Street in Indianapolis as the registered office for the family business for many years. Notwithstanding the belated amendment, the Senate Ethics Committee should look into the reason Lugar was using his official office for his private business matters for decades.
Naturally, the Indiana media has ignored the ethics complaint against Lugar despite his apparent disregard for Senate Ethics rules prohibiting him from using his official Senate office to conduct his private business affairs. Lugar simply tells the media it's an honest mistake, and it's the end of the story. When his Republican opponent, Richard Mourdock, was questioned about a homestead exemption the Marion Co. Auditor's office had mistakenly assigned to his Indianapolis condominium, the media pounced all over him despite the fact that it was Mourdock who discovered the Auditor's Office mistake and initiated action to rectify the problem. The Auditor's office even admitted it was their mistake, but Mourdock's name was still dragged through the mud by the Indiana media that is totally beholden to Lugar and is doing his bidding for his unprecedented seventh re-election campaign.
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