Did Claire McCaskill Just Admit to Breaking the Law?
Hatch Act Anyone?
By Erick Posted in 2006 — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Let's put aside the fact that McCaskill has been under a federal drug investigation for a minute. And let's ponder whether Claire just admitted, on tape, to breaking the law. Hear her for yourself.
Now, where I come from, and in most other states that I'm aware of, including Missouri, it is against the law for public servants, particularly those on the job, to participate in federal campaign activities. They can do so on their own time, but not from the job. And they can't use the resources of their government job to assist a federal campaign. It's called the Hatch Act and violating it means you've broken the law. Knowing that others are violating it, and participating in the violation, is also against the law.
A friend emails with this:
It is illegal under FECA for a state to support a federal campaign. So if state workers are being paid to work on the campaign, that would be an in-kind contribution. My guess is that that would violate state law, too. But probably what McCaskill is saying is that 130 employees have been given time off from work so that they can volunteer - presumably vacation time that they have accrued. This might make us question staffing levels at City Hall, but that's a very different matter from a campaign
violation.
So, we should keep digging.
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Did Claire McCaskill Just Admit to Breaking the Law? 8 Comments (0 topical, 8 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I agree you need more than that for a successful prosecution, but the use of the word "donated" rather rules out the wholly innocent interpretation that they will be doing their normal job of checking ID - or preventing people from checking ID, depending on the law in Missouri.
It doesn't mean that it is not a news story and a criminal investigation.
Quentin Langley
Editor of http://www.quentinlangley.net
I am familiar with Missouri to some extent due to family connections. If the RNC can work to win elections rather than advance outside group's interests (witness last night's ACD-8 election, wherein the national GOP infuriated the local Republicans), this election can be put away in short order, I think.
Maybe she was just drinking too much ice tea.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
As a premium member of Rasmussen, I've seen the latest poll between McRascal and Talent. Sadly, it wasn't so hot (though still close), but I trust that Missourians will see what she's really like soon.
Nevertheless, I believe Talent will win this thing. Oh, and there's some good news coming from Rasmussen on the Virginia Senate race! Their latest poll has Allen up substantially.
Somebody has the internal email or a copy of the memorandum "suggesting" that those workers take the day off. Someone has it, and someone is going to blab.
"If you're all on paid vacation, you can't possibly be working for the campaign" gambit. My suggestion is to find out who is working in those offices and inquire as to why they have all decided to take the day off?
those employees will dutifuly have turned in leave slips to cover their absence to "volunteer." The real question is whether the leave will actually be charged to their accounts come payday or in the alternative whether supervisors just keep a chit sheet and the employees just get to not be at work on some day when nobody's looking. Seen this movie, and a whole lot of other permutations of it.
In Vino Veritas
Erick. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, "work on the election on election day" could be just the ID checking, ballot handling work that every government has to get done and uses all sorts of people to do, including employees.
In any event, the Hatch Act ain't what it used to be and even state election and non-partisanship laws don't seem to apply to Democrats.
In Vino Veritas