Watchdog group wants feds to probe Blackburn's finances

12 Jun 2008 // Repeated financial reporting errors by Rep. Marsha Blackburn's campaign committee call for an in-depth federal investigation, a watchdog group claimed in a complaint filed Wednesday.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed the complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the Brentwood Republican's campaign committee and her treasurer, Tea Hoffman. Barbara Kaye Ginsberg, a retired homemaker from Germantown, Tenn., which is in Blackburn's district, is also listed as a complainant.

In April, Blackburn announced that an audit of her campaign finances found more than $440,000 in incorrectly reported or unreported donations and spending going back to when she first ran for Congress in 2002. She filed amendments for every campaign finance report she had filed with the FEC.

A subsequent Gannett News Service investigation revealed the FEC had sent Blackburn's committee 33 letters pointing out 90 possible mistakes in her campaign finance reports during her first three campaigns.

"Given the Blackburn campaign committee's longstanding pattern of filing inaccurate FEC reports and the large amounts of money involved, the FEC should step in, investigate the committee and sanction it appropriately." Said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW.

Blackburn's campaign spokeswoman Darcy Anderson pointed out that it was Blackburn who initiated the audit of her campaign finances.

"In regards to the meritless complaint filed by the liberal partisan group CREW, Rep. Blackburn is not surprised and unimpressed.

"This is an election year, and conservative women are prime targets for Democrat attack," Anderson said in a written statement.

CREW, supported by liberal groups, has filed complaints against some Democrats but most have involved GOP lawmakers.

Republican primary opponent Tom Leatherwood of Arlington said he believes Blackburn's revised campaign finance reports were a response to his candidacy. "I think it's unfortunate that the incumbent continues to be in the headlines for her pattern of self-serving behavior," he said Wednesday.

In its complaint, the group cites reporting by Gannett News Service and says the failures by the committee to accurately report its donations and spending were violations of federal campaign finance law.

One example cited is a $1,000 donation to Blackburn from former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in October 2004. Cunningham resigned in 2005 after admitting to taking bribes and is in federal prison in Arizona.

Blackburn's campaign announced Wednesday that the money was donated in January 2006 to Operation Eagles Nest, a group that helps soldiers and their families in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell. The donation is included in FEC reports.

Reported total disputed

When she revealed in April that she was revising her campaign reports, Blackburn released a summary of the previously unreported donations and expenditures.

Among them, Blackburn said, were $18,821 in unreported payments for campaign work to her daughter, Mary Morgan Ketchel, and son-in-law, Paul Ketchel, and a company they owned.

But a research firm hired by Leatherwood's campaign said Wednesday that its analysis of the revised campaign reports found more than $100,000 in unreported payments to her daughter and son-in-law.

Blackburn's campaign again declined Wednesday to release a complete list of the unreported or misreported donations and expenditures, saying the revised reports to the FEC sufficed.