Monday, April 16, 2007

Health Care Industry Bank-Rolling McGoff's Congressional Bid

The Star's Maureen Groppe reported today that Rep. Dan Burton's GOP primary challenger, Dr. John McGoff, outraised Burton during the first quarter by a wide margin. McGoff pulled in $97,920 to Burton's $30,340. Just as AI predicted, McGoff raised a substantial portion of his funds from providers and others associated with the health care industry. Not counting his own $10,000 contribution, McGoff raised 42% of his receipts from doctors and other sources within the health care industry.

An unusual contribution was a $1,000 receipt from the campaign committee of Sen. Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne). McGoff reported a little more than $14,000 in expenditures. Two notable expenditures were $3,500 for his campaign manager, Trevor Foughty, and $3,000 for Tim Sadler & Associates. Sadler is the husband of former Marion Co. Clerk Doris Ann Sadler.

Burton's campaign disclosure is notable for the fact that the vast majority of his itemized contributions were raised from individuals living outside Indiana. Burton paid $8,400 in salary for the services of Danielle Sarkine. He spent over $3,000 for gifts. The campaign also picked up a $399 tab at the Rathskellar and a $361 tab at Pizza Hut. But fear not. He still had over $700,000 in cash on hand at the end of the quarter.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, wouldn't that contribution from Senator Wyss be illegal? Federal candidates cannot accept money from state campaign committees due to their ability to raise unlimited personal and corporate contributions. It's like money laundering!

I'm pretty sure this means McGoff already took an illegal contribution... Has no one else noticed this? Why can't Republicans get this right?

At least he'd fit in with the Washington crowd...

Gary R. Welsh said...

The report lists that contributions as follows:

Senator Tom Wyss Election Campaign
2208 Lane 105 Lake James
Angola, Indiana 46703

I'm assuming that is his state-regulated campaign committee because he is a state senator. You raise a valid point anon 6:50.

Anonymous said...

Danielle Sarkine is Burton's daughter (as seen in the link below). I'm curious as to what exactly she does for his campaign.

http://www.autismindiana.org/NL200004.html

Anonymous said...

I think under FEC rules, federal campaigns can take up to $1000 from state-level campaign committees.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I think the Wyss Campaign committee is a state one. He's never run for federal office. He should be called out for giving an illegal contribution, and McGoff should be as well for accepting it. They should both know better!

Anonymous said...

Frank, you need to learn campaign finance law before accusing people. Being "pretty sure" isn;t enough.

In reality, according to 11 CFR 100.5 and 11 CFR 102.1, political committees (including state PAC’s and state candidate committees) can make federal contributions in aggregate of up to $1,000 per calendar year without having to register as a Federal Committee, as long as the committee can reasonably show that they had the means from legal contribution sources for federal contributions. So, if Sen. Wyss’ campaign committee gives $1 more to McGoff or any other federal candidate before December 31, 2007, they will have to register as a federal political committee (as an PAC). As long as they can show that they have historically received more than $1,000 in individual contributions (which shouldn’t be that difficult considering how long he’s been around), then it is not illegal for him to contribute as an unregulated committee, and it isn’t illegal for McGoff to accept it.

Anonymous said...

Trevor,

Quit posting anonymously. It's really quite silly.

Anonymous said...

Actually my name is Jared.
What is silly is when bloggers like you can throw out accusations with no facts and instead of acknowledging when you are wrong, you attack someone else. Face it, you don’t know the law and instead of doing some quick research, you just toss out lies.