[StBernard] Bobby Jindal - Above the Law, Below the table.

[Westley Annis]

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!! This is the biggest bunch of b.s.  Look, I'm for
Walter, but I can't stand by and watch this "nobody who appears out of left
field" get away with this.  Having run several campaigns and filled out
countless campaign compliance reports for clients, let me set the record
straight on this.

The ONLY way Jindal is required to report the mail out expenditure by the
State GOP is IF Jindal was involved in the planning, development and/or
mailing of the "mail out."  If a third party organization on its own does
any activity on behalf of a candidate without any knowledge of or by the
candidate, it is categorized as an "independent expenditure" by the third
party organization and the candidate does not need to report it as an "in
kind" contribution - which is what this guy is getting at.

Let me give you a real life example from personnel experience.  When I was
helping Mr. Dean in his re-election bid for State Senate back in 1999, he
refused to spend money on a mail out (gee, what a surprise - Lynn Dean not
wanting to spend money?) nor would he accept contributions.  So, I
approached several business people, the late Mr. Billy Nungesser among them
and leaders from some state-wide business groups, to quickly form a
political/NPO group where they could pool their donations and send mail outs
and buy TV time for Senator Dean. (I should note that I had no official
title or position in Mr. Dean's campaign, so I was not officially
intervening for him.) - he did not know about this.

This group of business people did exactly what I suggested, in record time I
might add, and we met in Belle Chasse to start planning what we would do for
Mr. Dean, independent of his knowledge of this activity.  And to keep things
even more kosher, it was suggested I leave just prior to the meeting
beginning so no one could even vaguely accuse me, thus Mr. Dean's campaign,
of being part of whatever activity the "group" was going to do for him.
This way, Mr. Dean would not have to claim their efforts as an in-kind
contribution.  I should note this group was comprised of a couple of
Plaquemines parish lawyers who were extrememly knowledgeable of campaign
compliance laws and ethics.  They both gave the green light to what was
taking place.

Sure, the Jindal campaign can admit that they "presume" the State GOP will
do mail outs or other activities on behalf of Bobby Jindal (since he's the
GOP official candidate), but so long as they have no direct participation in
those activities, reporting them as an in-kind contribution is NOT required
by law or ethics.

So, this guy Stow-Serge is dead wrong and his letter to the Campaign/Ethics
committee is nothing more than hype - IF it was ever "really" sent to the
Ethics committee?

Also, on a side note, a few years later I did eventually tell Mr. Dean what
Billy Nungesser and several others did for him.

John Scurich


-----Original Message-----
Bobby Jindal - Above the Law, Below the table. 
I want to take a moment to blog about something I think is really important
that I have been holding in for a while. Recently, with a group of my Tulane
College Democrat friends as we were going over some campaign filings for the
governor's race I noticed some major "discrepancies" on the report of the
campaign filing of Bobby Jindal for Governor.

It seems that despite all of his rhetoric about ethics and family values
that he does not have the decency hold himself to the same standard.

He's the deal. In the month of June the Republican Party of Louisiana spent
$118,264.76 on the Jindal Campaign for direct mail. The Republican party
openly admitted this support. As it should have. The Jindal campaign itself
however did not. They chose to leave out this massive party kickback. They
left it out when they filed their first report with the ethics board on July
25th. Then when they filed an amendment to their report on August 10th they
left it out again.

Over looking 118 grand is once is enough, but to look it over two times,
that's intentional.

Below is a copy of the complaint I filed to the ethics board about Jindal.
Forward it to your friends who want to cut this type of hypocrisy out of
government.

"August 21, 2007


Louisiana Board of Ethics
2415 Quail Drive, Third Floor
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808


Dear Ethics Board:

I would like to bring a situation to your attention that needs to be
investigated as a violation of Louisiana Campaign Finance Disclosure laws.

On July 25, 2007 the Republican Party of Louisiana filed a campaign finance
report (LA-11826 - F202) which listed several expenditures that benefited
the Bobby Jindal for Governor Campaign. More specifically, the report states
that the Republican Party sent out several mailers on behalf of the Jindal
Campaign that totaled $118,264.76.

The dates and amounts of the expenditures by the Louisiana Republican Party
on behalf of the Jindal Campaign were as follows:

Majority Strategies135 Professional Dr Ste 104Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
06/04/2007
Direct mail Jindal Gov
75120.30

Majority Strategies135 Professional Dr Ste 104Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
06/13/2007
Direct mail Jindal Gov
10000.00

Majority Strategies135 Professional Dr Ste 104Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
06/13/2007
Direct mail Jindal Gov
10000.00

Majority Strategies135 Professional Dr Ste 104Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
06/13/2007
Direct mail Jindal Gov
5040.10


Majority Strategies135 Professional Dr Ste 104Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
06/28/2007
Direct mail Jindal Gov
10000.00

Majority Strategies135 Professional Dr Ste 104Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
06/28/2007
Direct mail Jindal Gov
8104.36



On July 23, 2007 the Bobby Jindal for Governor Campaign filed a campaign
finance report (LA-11813 - F102) and on August 10, 2007 they made an
amendment to that filing (LA-11870 - F102). Disclosure of the $118,264.76 in
contributions from the Louisiana Republican Party is not evident in either
of Mr. Jindal's campaign finance reports

Failure to disclose $118,264.76 in contributions is a clear violation of
Louisiana Campaign Finance Law.

Therefore, I respectfully ask the Louisiana Board of Ethics to commence an
investigation of this matter and demand that Mr. Jindal disclose all
contributions received by his campaign so the public can enjoy full
disclosure of his campaign finance activities.

Respectfully,



Chris Stow-Serge
New Orleans, La.