Goode caves. Only not really.

Rep. Virgil Goode, presumably swayed by the awesome power of my charts, is prepared to offer refunds to employees of MZM, Inc. who were forced to contribute to him by their employer. Note that he’s not giving all of the clearly-coerced money back. Peter Hardin writes in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Goode said yesterday he had read in the news media that three former MZM employees alleged they were pressured to make political contributions. The former employees said Wade demanded employees to give to the company’s political action committee, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Goode said he doesn’t want any donations that weren’t made “freely and voluntarily.” He was preparing a letter to send to donors from MZM. The letter would offer to make refunds, Goode said.

Offer. Rep. Goode is offering to make refunds. How might this letter read?

Dear MZM Employee,

Thank you for your recent contribution of $250 to my campaign. I must admit that it came as a surprise, given that you don’t live in my district, have never contributed to a campaign before, and spelled my name wrong.

However, there are rumors on the internets that you may have given me this money under duress. That, of course, would be a crime. Please confess to me if you were involved in the commission of this federal felony, and I will happily refund your $250.

Sincerely,
Virgil H. Goode

Yeah, sign me right up. Also, I’d like to call the police to report the crack that the one dude stole from me.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

4 replies on “Goode caves. Only not really.”

  1. As with the crack, the felony is in the action on the part of the third party. It’s just not the sort of thing that one is likely to want to report. For starters, anybody making such a confession would presumably lose their job. They may end up embroiled in a federal investigation. And I can only assume that MZM isn’t likely to just roll over — many of these higher-level execs could have been involved in the other alleged crimes with Rep. Duke Cunningham.

    It ain’t the sort of thing that anybody wants to go confessing to being involved with, victim or otherwise. Katherine Harris has made the same “offer.” I’ll be very interested to see on the next campaign filing if anybody takes them up on it. My guess? Nobody with two brain cells to rub together would respond to that letter.

  2. What about the money Virgil got from the MZM PAC? Shouldn’t he be giving that back, too? It was, apparently, being given for the purposes of “owning” a congressman. If Congressman Goode doesn’t consider himself “owned”, I would think he’d want to do more than offer to give that dirty money back. I hope he’d be writing a check to the PAC and insisting that they take it.

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