...The FEC Letters

Well this is certainly a lot more negative than I planned on opening with but how can I not bring this up for public discussion?  I certainly hope Sam's new Campaign Manager can fix this quick.  Howell stated in his email that his reason for resigning from the Rasoul campaign was that when employed as Sam's CM, Sam outright refused to show him any financial documents.  Can someone please let Sam know that he needs a professional finance staffer to fix this before we lose the most visible Democrat we've seen in the 6th.

If the Richardson campaign had sent you to this link on the FEC website you would have noted that the Rasoul campaign has already received THREE letters from the FEC demanding more information and threatening audits and "enforcement actions".

Some reasons for FEC letters to Rasoul for Congress

1. "Your report fails to include an FEC form 3Z-1.  Form 3Z-1 is used to disclose the total gross receipts...
2. "All contributions and disbursements... are designated for the 2008 General Election" (note: I thought we were in a primary here).
3. "Your report discloses a contribution from a unincorporated partnership/limited liability corporation/sole proprietorship... as a reminder, contributions from campaigns are prohibited"
4. "You have itemized disbursements for which you have failed to include the complete name, complete address and/or purpose"
5. "Contributions and/or loans from the personal funds of the candidate... failure to disclose... please correct the discrepancy" (note: emphasis in the original)

Sam has made Campaign Finance Reform and the "evils of money in politics" THE centerpiece of his campaign.  Is it unfair to ask that he himself fully disclose where he is getting his funding from?  Is it too much to ask of candidates that we support to figure out how to file a simple finance report and uphold minimal disclosure law?

There is a silver lining to all this though.  Sam raised over $100,000 in 2007 as a first time candidate before he even had staff in place.  Not shabby at all.  While I am very seriously concerned about his troubles with the FEC I think the Richardson attack of pointing out his out of district funds was a little premature.  I'm sure right about now Drew has realized that there aren't that many Democratic donors in the Sixth and he'll probably have to raise out of district cash himself if he plans on being competitive.

Sam has shown he certainly deserves to win rookie of the year, possibly even nationwide, and will certainly be someone we will be hearing about for decades to come.  Let's just hope his new Campaign Manager can mold him into the Michael Jordan of VA politics and not the Sam Bowie (the guy Portland drafted instead of picking MJ)

For the record I want to point out that Drew Richardson does not have any publicly available finance report since he had not raised or spent $1,001 or more as of 12/31/07, which is the last reported date with the FEC.  Of course, the reason being was that he was not even a declared candidate at that time.  When his financials come out in mid-April that cover through March 31st, I will be looking very closely at those as well.