Update on the “Out of Town Money”
Although I have been busy trying to make a living, your intrepid blogger has stayed on the trail of this mysterious $5,000 donation to “Equality is Gainesville’s Business” (EGB). I finally got some answers.
The donor was another political action committee (PAC) called “Basic Rights Gainesville” (BRG). This PAC was created by Gainesville City Commissioner Craig Lowe. He also created the recipient of the donation, EGB. He created EGB in June of 2008. The first donation was recorded on 6/24/08.
On October 3, 2008, Craig Lowe filed papers with the Supervisor of Elections registering the creation of Basic Rights Gainesville (BRG). The first donation, recorded the same day, was a $5,000 check from another PAC, Basic Rights Montgomery of Silver Spring, Maryland. This money was then recorded as an expenditure, in the form of a donation from BRG to EGB. EGB recorded that donation on December 24, 2008. Then, last month, Craig Lowe notified the Supervisor of Elections on January 9th that the last quarter report from BRG was its last. BRG was disbanded. It had served its purpose as a conduit for the donation from Basic Rights Montgomery.
What most of us want to know is, is this illegal? No, I don’t think so. The next question is, why the subterfuge? Why not just take a donation directly from Basic Rights Montgomery instead of creating a Gainesville entity to pass it through? It looks deceptive.
The very purpose of all this reporting and making things a public record, and putting them online is to make campaigns more transparent. The people who championed these laws and practices did so because they thought that the people of a community should know when big donors from out of the area are trying to influence their elections. In the spirit of those laws, I will try to keep these issues out in the Sunshine. I’m sure our city commissioners will agree that this is the right thing to do.
I welcome Craig Lowe or anyone else in EGB to take all the space they need in this blog to respond.
