Former aide says Rep. Porter made illegal fundraising calls

[deminks]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/oct/22/102210718.html

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A former aide said Republican Rep. Jon Porter made dozens of illegal fundraising calls earlier this year from his congressional and district offices.

Jim Shepard, a 10-year veteran of Capitol Hill who was the congressman's executive assistant and scheduler from March to the end of June, told the Las Vegas Sun he witnessed Porter making the calls on five different dates.

Shepard said he wrote an e-mail to Hesse about the problem on June 18, saying, "We can NOT let him do this anymore."

Shepard said he witnessed Porter make five to 15 fundraising calls with a campaign cell phone from his Henderson office on each of April 17, 18 and 21 in anticipation of President Bush's fundraising visit to Las Vegas on April 24.

[Greeby]

1. .............

:popcorn:

[iconoclastic cat]

2. Donate to his Dem opponent, Tessa Hafen RIGHT NOW!

http://www.tessahafen.com/

[Kagemusha]

3. This is what they tried to go after Gore for...

Actually doing it, and being repeatedly witnessed doing it, is pretty stupid.

[Igel]

4. Cell phone? n/t

[Kagemusha]

5. From offices

Um, if the law has some cell phone loophole, I wouldn't know. Doubt we'll see this prosecuted.

[Igel]

7. This is a wrinkle I don't know how the law handles.

It used to be that to make a call you'd use some governmental facility like, say, the phone. Now you can make a call from a government bathroom, and the only government facility you'd be using is the floor or the john. Hell, one could conduct a fair amount of a campaign using an Axim and a couple of cell phones in the courtyard of a Federal Building.

But if the law is written such that 'facility' (or whatever the proper word is) also means things like 'chair' or 'floor' (or "courtyard bench"), it should be prosecuted.

It probably won't be prosecuted; but in this political environment, somebody'll look at it hard, and say there's no evidence apart from one person's testimony. Unless they get the guy's cell phone records and the physical location is noted. I think with Gore they asked for (land line) phone records. Otherwise the "corruption" meme is just reinforced.

[Kagemusha]

9. To be blunt, it probably means from official buildings, esp. offices

so a cell from an office really ought to be in violation of that law. More importantly, this is something that members and staff are told as part of their briefing package when starting a session to make sure no one can claim ignorance later. So whichever way it is, this staffer quoted in the article, ought to damn well know.

Now actual prosecutions? I'm not holding my breath.

[stepnw1f]

6. the Corruption of the GOP is Incredible! (nt)

[NVMojo]

8. this guy is a real neocon Bush luvin' asshole ...

[Supersedeas]

10. Nothing to see here--feed them more Wesley Snipes and 300Mth baby