Yesterday there was buzz about Coleman’s likely ethics violation and today it is being examined further. From Talking Points Memo:
Today, Coleman concedes to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he wasn’t paying any utility bills and didn’t even have a written lease until July, when reporters started asking about the arrangement.
…
Finding a place for $600 a month just a few blocks from the Capitol is difficult, to say the least. And the deal — and questions about whether Coleman was essentially accepting undisclosed gifts — are cropping up as an issue in Coleman’s reelection bid
From Sam Stein at the Huffington Post:
The whole situation has raised the eyebrows of those well versed in ethics policies, who see the pseudo-advance Coleman was granted on his utility bill as a violation of the gift limit afforded to members of Congress.
“[The utilities] would constitute a gift because it is something that he, up until recently, was not paying,” explained Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Now that he has paid it, he can’t argue that it was included in the rent… Clearly, it was a gift at the time because he failed to pay. It adds to the issue that the ethics community should be looking at. The whole arrangement was inappropriate and violated ethics rule.”
How does the Coleman campaign respond?
“Take the senator at his word… He’s been remarkably transparent, open and honest about the entire situation,” said Coleman’s campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan. “Clearly, it would have been good to have a written lease, which is why they have one now.”
Because Coleman and his campaign are sooo trustworthy, ya know? And it’s not even true either: they are only providing information when they are repeatedly prodded to provide it. It has never been “remarkably transparent” and I doubt it’s “honest.” They also released a distraction video trying to show the million-dollar home Coleman rents a room from as being at fair value and wrongly trying to turn the tables. Pretty desperate. It’s clear they are scrambling at this ethics violation.
Read the whole Huffington Post piece here: “Coleman Apartment Deal May Have Violated Ethics Rule, Group Says.”
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Save your powder for Paulsen vs Madia. The senate race is over.
Utilities include garbage removal, and we saw the video - He does take out the garbage. Just ask the Stepford Wife.
Why is Norm still leading in the polls? With news like this and the felony that lefties make it out to be, he should be behind by 20 points.
McCain should be behind by 10 points.
I sense good things for the GOP. At the end of the day, people want Government to be a limited part of their lives. Important, yes, as Government provides public safety, infrastructure, basic education, etc. But Americans like knowing that the single most important lever in their enjoyment of life is how they choose to live it. That will never change.
DTM wrote: “Government provides public safety, infrastructure, basic education, etc.”
Give the conservatives a few more years, and it won’t anymore.
“Why is Norm still leading in the polls? With news like this and the felony that lefties make it out to be, he should be behind by 20 points.
McCain should be behind by 10 points.”
My guess is because they’re only polling older voters that still have land lines. They are almost completely missing the younger generation that have abandoned land lines for cell phones. Not to mention all the newly registered voters that the Obama campaign has pulled in.
Look it has been proven that New York Norm is such a cheap whore no one cares… lets talk issues, like Norm voting with Bush 90% of the time and against Minnesota interests 100% of the time.