Ted Poe Lies to the FEC

by: Matt Glazer

Wed Jul 11, 2007 at 11:45 AM CDT

…from his first year in office alleges multiple violations of campaign law, including the misstatement of cash on hand by $90,000 as well as inadequate identification of 40 percent of his donors.

[…]

The violations were documented from when Poe was elected in November 2003 from the redrawn CD 2 through the end of 2004. Poe’s campaign committee, Poe For Congress, reported cash on hand of $148,657 by the end of 2004 when an examination of bank records showed that the committee only had $57,800, according to the report.

The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) could take action as early as tomorrow. The FEC could move on the citation, which would lead to “enforcement action” against the Congressman and brother Virgil Poe who is also his treasurer.

It is hard to say this was a modest accounting error.  Again from QR:

The vast majority of the discrepancy was due to both the underreporting of money coming into the campaign account and the underreporting of campaign committee expenditures in 2004. The report states that the committee did not report $84,397 in individual contributions and underreported contributions from PACs by $15,115.

Meanwhile, his campaign committee did not report $316,621 in expenses. That total was partially offset by $71,738 in expenses that were double reported and another $43,800 in expenses that were reported but could not be verified in bank records.

Another $15,000 in expenses was entered as $1,500 while the audit couldn’t account for a final $29,443. In total, Poe For Congress reported the receipt of $1.57 million and $1.5 million in expenses in 2004. The audit revealed that the committee actually received $1.67 million and spent $1.69 million.

This is more of the same from Republican elected officials. These Enron style games and perjury on government documents should not be tolerated by anyone.  Poe should be held accountable for his actions just like any other elected official.