MyDD: Matt Stoller Drills Al Wynn (MD-4) On Finance Violations

Matt Stoller is on fire:

What you have to understand here is that this is a political game.  Wynn has until September 29, 2006 to provide the FEC with an explanation, which is after the primary date.  In other words, Wynn is betting that hiding his donor identities and breaking the law will net him a fine, but he'll be able to pay that fine after the primary election with money he can raise as a sitting Congressman.  If he actually complied with the law, he'd have to answer to voters about who's giving him money.  This way, he can face the FEC rather than the voters, and he knows how to handle the FEC.

His willingness to tangle with the FEC and flout campaign finance laws is not new.  In 2000, Wynn was forced to return contributions from MSFBDA Management Group, a company that laundered money through its employees to Wynn.  Corporate contributions to Federal candidates are illegal, so what this company did is pay three of its officers and then those officers turned around and gave the money to Wynn.  That's a no-no for obvious reasons.    This history is particularly disturbing given that Wynn is continuing to not report the employers and jobs of many of his large donors.  Is there another corporate contribution scandal here?  Perhaps, but it's almost impossible to figure it out because he's just not reporting the information like he's legally required to.

There's more.  That year, Wynn's campaign was one of 45 campaigns that failed to file a pre-General election report.  In 2001, he was fined for filing his report late.  This might be sloppiness, but it's the kind of sloppiness that comes from having contempt for Federal agencies in general.

If you love Donna Edwards, NOW is the time to get up in Wynn's face (METAPHORICALLY ONLY, in light of recent events this disclaimer is necessary) on this. If you play talk radio, especially black talk radio, let the word go out. Wynn is a frequent flyer violator - fined by the FEC - of these laws, and it's part of how he stays in business.