Jeff Frederick’s mystery fundraiser.
Like many politically-aware Virginians, I know that Republican Delegate Jeff Frederick was the beneficiary of a fundraiser held by Tom “The Hammer” DeLay recently.
On April 19, DeLay held an event up in D.C. and, looking at Frederick’s contribution report for that day, it was quite successful. I count 24 contributions that came in on April 19, making it a real stand-out day for Del. Frederick.
But one thing doesn’t appear on his State Board of Elections report: any evidence of the party. There are just five in-kind contributions listed for the filing period, and none of them are the substantial costs of food, drink, and entertainment that go into a DeLay-hosted shindig. So perhaps the Frederick campaign paid for it? Nope — no such expenses are listed, for the 19th or for any other date. Virginia’s campaign finance law is pretty easy: do whatever you want, but disclose it, if over $100 is contributed.
So I figure there’s a couple of possibilities. Either Del. Frederick’s campaign is violating Virginia election law, or this was the lamest fundraiser ever.
Now, ol’ Tom DeLay’s not a real popular guy these days, so Del. Frederick was none too eager to acknowledge the existence of this event before or after it took place. But somebody should probably let him know that it’s one thing not to tell his constituents about this fundraiser, but it’s another matter altogether to withhold that information from the State Board of Elections.
I guess Frederick and DeLay have more in common than their political party.
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