After taking another look at campaign expenditures of "Citizens to Elect Sheriff Nygren", as posted for public viewing (if you know where to look) on the website of the Illinois State Board of Elections, I continued to wonder for what purpose many of these expenses were made.
For example, at Harry & David #587 in Estero, Florida:
1/13/09 $162.78 campaign gifts
3/12/09 $92.49 campaign gifts
5/6/09 $110.41 campaign gifts
Harry & David is one of the premier gift-basket marketing operations. Whom do you suppose received these wonderful gifts?
Blue Coyote Business and Social Club, Fort Myers, Florida:
5/6/09 "campaign meal" charges of $94.24, $65.13, $318.25, $105.26
Whom do you suppose was present for these "campaign meals"? Hard-working campaign volunteers in Fort Myers, Florida, cranking up a political campaign 1,500 miles away?
Police Benevolent Protective #192
4/22/09 $630.00 for "community relations"
The PB&PA is one of two union-type groups of deputies at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department. This one might be called, by some, as the "in" group.
I was curious today whether the State Board of Elections (SBE) ever examined receipts for expenditures by political campaigns to verify that the expenses were for valid campaign purposes and that those who received the benefit of the expenditures (meals, gifts, liquor, etc.) actually worked on or for the campaign.
What did I learn? The SBE has no investigatory powers and is not the "election cops".
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2 comments:
Pardon my ignorance, but who are "the election cops" then? Somebody's got to oversee this sort of thing, you would think.
Surely there must be some agency that reviews, examines, audits campaign expenditures. Just haven't found it yet. There is another office of the SBE yet to call.
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