Dems are always talking about how they are more ethical than Republicans. They act all high and mighty and then it comes out that they fired a Ukrainian Prosecutor to protect their son’s $50k/month job. Pennsylvania Democrat Eugene DePasquale is no different, he is accused of illegally using $130,000 of State campaign funds to start-up his Congressional bid.
“DePasquale, the state’s auditor general, used donations to his state campaign coffers to launch his bid against Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.). In March, the Democrat began running Facebook ads that touted his tenure in state government and asked voters for email addresses and other personal information. Many of the ads specifically targeted the city of Harrisburg, which is located in Perry’s district and routinely votes to elect Democrats.”
It doesn’t end there, on top of ads DePasquale dumped over $110,000 into Dem campaign firms. He gave Rising Tide Interactive $12,000, and sent over about $8,000 for his “website” needs to Think Big Campaigns.
Democratic opponent Tom Brier was first to bring up DePasquale’s alleged finance violations. Around April, Brier called out DePasquale for “floating the rules.” Watchdog group, Foundation for Accountability, and Civic Trust(F.A.C.T.) took over the case later on after Brier failed to properly notarize a complaint.
“DePasquale did not respond to a request for comment about his alleged violations. The campaign dismissed the allegations in April, telling the York Dispatch that DePasquale’s state campaign payments came “before he announced his candidacy” and that they “had nothing to do with his congressional campaign.” Federal candidates are allowed to spend money in order to “test the waters” before officially launching a campaign, but they must use funds that are subject to federal regulations. While individuals cannot give more than $2,800 per election to federal candidates, Pennsylvania has no political contribution limits for individuals, meaning DePasquale could not use state campaign funds to “test the waters.”
A DePasquale campaign spokesman tried to attack F.A.C.T. but once they were questioned about the allegations, they went silent. F.A.C.T. executive director Kendra Arnold and many others assume this is their desperate attempt to have voters and the media forget about this blatant abuse od campaign funds.
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