Really, Terri???
[This post has been updated HERE.]
A week after the Detroit Free Press reported that Terri Lynn Land has made nearly $3 million worth of donations to her own campaign while filing tax returns that show no such funds available, Land is finally getting around to saying that she’s finally going to get around to obeying federal election laws by refiling her taxes financial disclosure statement:
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land says she’s close to filing an amended financial disclosure statement to account for nearly $3 million she’s given her campaign.Spokeswoman Heather Swift says Land likely will fix the “clerical error” this week. Democrat Gary Peters Tuesday called on the ex-Michigan secretary of state to stop spending the money until addressing discrepancies his campaign says may be illegal.
The Detroit Free Press has reported neither Land nor her husband listed joint assets or checking accounts with more than $250,000. An election expert questioned if potential transfers of money from Land’s husband violated the spirit of campaign-finance laws.
Why it has taken a week to get around to this is unknown. The Peters campaign has called on her to stop spending campaign funds until she can explain why she broke the law.
The more important question here is how she could have “overlooked” a bank account she shares with her husband that has millions of dollars in it. That’s quite a “clerical error”. And, if funds were shifted to that account after she announced her run for the U.S. Senate, that violates federal law that limits contributions from relatives, in this case her wealthy husband, to $2,600 for each election, $5,200 per election cycle.
This “oversight” appears to be a blatant effort to skirt the law and divert money she says belongs to her husband to her campaign. Keep in mind that she was once Michigan’s Secretary of State which put her in charge of Michigan elections. One would presume that she knows election law frontwards and backwards. That’s certainly what she is telling voters.
Terri Lynn Land is either a liar and a criminal for doing this or she’s inept and sloppy.
Either way, she’s proven herself to be completely untrustworthy and absolutely not qualified to hold the position of U.S. Senator.
No amount of massive self-funding or spending on her behalf by the Koch brothers changes that.
Late update: You know, Land has been spending money from this account. Makes you wonder how she could have forgotten about it when she is accessing it on what appears to be a fairly regular basis?
[This post has been updated to make it clear that it is a financial disclosure statement that Land is refiling, not her taxes.]
