Fiesta Bowl made Illegal Campaign Contributions to AZ Pols...including Racist Russell Pearce

[joeybee12]

My headline...deduced from the following story...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/sports/ncaafootball/30fiesta.html?hp


Top executives at the Fiesta Bowl, the host of one of the nation’s pre-eminent college football games, funneled campaign contributions to local politicians, flew other Arizona elected officials around the country at the bowl’s expense, racked up a $1,000 bill at a strip club, and even spent $30,000 on a birthday party for the chief executive, according to an investigative report commissioned by the bowl’s board of directors.

The investigators do not make conclusions about whether bowl executives or others broke the law, but at least one expert in nonprofit organizations said the findings could lead to criminal charges. At minimum, the investigation is likely to threaten the tax-exempt status of the bowl, which, like most other prominent organizations in college sports, is formally registered as a charity.

Some aspects of the campaign contribution scheme were reported by The Arizona Republic in 2009, prompting an initial inquiry by the board of directors as well as an investigation by Arizona’s state attorney general. Tom Horne, the attorney general, said in a statement that the report, which has been presented to his office, will assist his office in its continuing investigation.

One of the beneficiaries of the trips was Russell Pearce, the State Senate president, a Republican who has gained a national profile over the past year for writing Arizona’s controversial immigration law. Pearce and his wife traveled to Chicago in 2005 to attend a Northwestern-Michigan game and stayed at the Ritz-Carlton. He and his wife also traveled to Boston on a similar trip with his son in 2008, according to the report.

[Blue_Tires]

1. no big shock...those bowl organizers are usually the same

local chamber of commerce scum...

[Oceansaway]

2. K&R...n/t

[gratuitous]

3. Come down on these guys like a ton of bricks

As if the college bowl system isn't corrupt enough, and doesn't plunder enough money for itself, it has to bribe local politicians, too?

[joeybee12]

4. One can only hope this leads to the end of the BCS...nt