Political flier spurs charges
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Political flier spurs charges
By MARSHA SHULER
Capitol news bureau
The Louisiana Board of Ethics has filed charges against Baton Rouge Republican activist Scott Wilfong related to his role in an effort to derail Mayor-President Kip Holden’s 2008 re-election bid.
The Ethics Board alleges Wilfong and his companies may have violated state campaign finance law on three occasions when he failed to disclose expenditures in connection with a political flier opposing Holden’s candidacy.
The flier, which appeared in thousands of mailboxes, claimed Holden, who is black, had an affair with a white woman and was beaten by her husband.
Holden denied the allegations.
The Ethics Board made the charges public Thursday.
The case moves to the Ethics Adjudicatory Board, which would ultimately rule on the charges if it goes to hearing.
Wilfong faces potential fines of $15,000 for missing deadlines to file the reports and a possible extra $10,000 fine for failure to file.
Holden won re-election by a 3-1 margin over three opponents.
Wilfong had connections with two Republican mayoral contenders who sought to oust Holden: Wayne Carter and Dan Kyle.
Wilfong said the Ethics Board is all wrong in its claims.
He said he was not required to file campaign finance disclosure reports because he was a businessman doing paid work for a client.
“I did what I was asked by my client to do,” said Wilfong.
He said there was no reporting requirement on him.
Wilfong said he gave the Ethics Board copies of bank statements, canceled checks and invoices to the client related to the political flier.
He said he gave the client’s name to the Ethics Board, but would not make it public.
Wilfong said the complaint letter that launched the ethics investigation contained the names of three people the complainer said could be behind the flier and noted he was the vendor who could provide information on the source of the funds used.
“Instead of investigating these three people, they investigated me,” said Wilfong.
“I could not be more disappointed that this is our Ethics Board for our state.”
The mailer, distributed under a false name, was traced to Wilfong through the postal permit and return address on it.
At the time, Wilfong refused to identify who paid him to print and distribute the mailer.
In the wake of the incident, Holden hired an attorney to investigate.
The attorney, Mary Olive Pierson, said she would investigate potential civil action against those behind the inflammatory mailer.
Neither Holden nor Pierson could be reached for comment Thursday.
A message left at Holden’s office was not returned nor was he available through his cell phone.
The Ethics Board allegations are against Wilfong individually or doing business as SSW & Associates, three charges, and Capital Business Services L.L.C., three charges.
The board alleges Wilfong and his related companies may have violated campaign finance reporting laws “by spending more than $500 in connection with the distribution of a flier that opposed the candidacy of Melvin ‘Kip’ Holden …in connection with the Oct. 4, 2008 election and failing to file disclosure reports.
According to the charges, Wilfong failed to file:
- A report by Sept. 4, 2008, covering expenditures made on or before Aug. 25, 2008.
- A report by Sept. 24, 2008 covering expenditures made Aug. 26, 2008, and Sept. 14, 2008.
- A report by Oct. 27, 2008, covering expenditures made Sept. 15, 2008, and Oct. 15, 2008.
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