Mississippi Cochran campaign failed to accurately report walking around cash handed out in both primary and runoff:
7/8/14, "Cochran camp says it 'screwed up' cash accounting," Clarion-Ledger, Geoff Pender
"Facing allegations of vote buying and a challenge to a GOP primary runoff win, the Thad Cochran campaign on Tuesday said it made a mistake with its accounting of nearly $53,000 in get-out-the-vote cash and will have to amend its reporting to the Federal Election Commission.
A spokesman for six-term incumbent Cochran called the filing "a screw up," and the campaign has denied vote buying and other allegations.
Challenger Chris McDaniel is preparing a challenge of the results of the June 24 runoff, where he lost by about 7,600 votes.
In a statement Tuesday McDaniel said: "The allegations of criminal misconduct against the Cochran campaign and his close associates continue to mount. Mississippians deserve a full accounting of the unbecoming tactics of the Cochran campaign used in their attempt to drive ineligible voters to the polls in June."
Some of the reimbursements listed for Cochran Operations Director Shook through June 3 are large, including payments of $8,000, $10,000 and $15,000.
Cochran campaign adviser Austin Barbour says the filings were a mistake by the campaign's treasurer. He said they should be listed as cash payments to "dozens" of people who helped knock on doors and with other GOTV work.
"Amanda, as director of operations, is like our office manager," Barbour said.
"So she would run to the bank to get cash to pay field workers.
"Our treasurer screwed up, and we are fixing it right now," Barbour said. "We are amending our FEC report for the primary, and the one for the runoff – I think it's due within a week or so – will be filed correctly."
Barbour said campaign workers on Tuesday had "names and addresses of people spread out on the conference room table" and were compiling an amended report. He said the campaign would make the available publicly when finished, in a day or so.
"People screw up FEC reports all the time," Barbour said. "We haven't gotten any notice from the FEC on it. You are allowed to go back and amend a report. You are encouraged to go back and amend reports."
Gotnews recently ran a story of a man who claimed he helped the Cochran campaign illegally buy votes in the black community in Meridian for the June 24 runoff.
Cochran supporters also faced claims of vote buying weeks ago, before the runoff vote, after a super PAC supporting Cochran hired a Democratic political operative to turn out votes. State Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole said he heard reports of "walking around money" being handed out and vote buying." images from GotNews.com
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Article linked in Clarion-Ledger report above:
7/7/14, "More Evidence of Illegal 'Cash for Vote' Operation by Cochran Campaign Piles Up," Charles C. Johnson, GotNews.com
"Cochran campaign staffer Amanda Shook was illegally reimbursed for over $40,000 cash in walking around money during the Republican primary, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings. The payments are described as "Reimbursed Expenses - Campaign Walkers."
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| Amanda Shook |
Shook was previously alleged to be one of the sources of street cash in an alleged vote-buying operation in a Gotnews.com report from the Reverend Stevie Fielder.
Shook is Director of Operations for the Thad Cochran campaign, where she works for campaign manager Kirk Sims, who was also mentioned by Fielder as someone he worked with on the Cochran campaign. Shook previously worked for Sims in the office of Governor Phil Bryant, where Sims was the governor's chief of staff and Shook was his scheduler. Sims is U.S. Senator Roger Wicker's son-in-law.
FEC reports list seven payments by Citizens for Cochran, the candidate's official campaign committee, to Shook totaling $52,625. The bulk of these payments describe the purpose of the disbursement as "Reimbursed Expenses - Campaign Walkers." It is unclear how 27 year-old Shook acquired such large sums of cash for the initial outlays. Requests for comment from Shook went unanswered at the time of this writing.
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| $13,199 walking around cash May 2014 |
Amanda Shook, nee Mertz, is the same "Amanda" named by Reverend Stevie Fielder last week in the GotNews exclusive interview. Fielder identified an Amanda that he spoke with at the campaign office.
Rev. Fielder came forth to allege vote buying activities of Thad Cochran's campaign staff. His story has been covered by subsequent reporters, including Matthew Boyle of BreitbartNews.
According to FEC documents filed by Citizens for Cochran, Amanda Shook received seven separate payments from the PAC from May 1-June 3. However, most of the cash walking money, $41,500 was paid to Shook from May 29-June 3, just prior to the Republican Primary. "Walking around money" or street money is the practice of using cash for sometimes questionable purposes during campaigns.
Shortly after the primary and before run-off, Shook left the country for a luxurious vacation at a resort in the Dominican Republic for her husband's 30th birthday.
Responding to previous Gotnews.com reporting, the Cochran campaign admitted to making cash payments of $25 in envelopes, not $15.
Spokesman Jordan Russell told the Clarion-Ledger: "Whether you're a high school kid in northeast Jackson or a retired nurse in Greenwood, if you're out working doors for us, you get paid in cash, in an envelope. Saleem asked the guy for names and addresses for (Federal Election Commission) filing purposes. Why would you ask a guy for names and addresses if you're buying votes?"
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| $35,000 walking around cash over 3 dates, May 2014 |
While Russell claims the names were collected for FEC reporting purposes, the actual FEC reports show only large bulk-sum "reimbursements" to Amanda Shook....
Shook, along with Saleem Baird and campaign manager, Kirk Sims, were identified by Fielder as the Cochran staffers who refused to make good on a $16,000 promise to pay if Cochran won. Fielder claimed he was to receive the money for his part in recruiting "hundreds or even thousands" of blacks in an elaborate voter fraud scheme aimed at securing Thad Cochran's win against Chris McDaniel.
The Cochran campaign also appears to have had different rates for low income blacks and white college students at Ole Miss. "Cochran was paying $100 to people - mostly college students, especially girls - to sign wave and knock doors. Per day. $25/shift is totally ludicrous," writes one senior at Ole Miss who declined to be identified.
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| $8574 cash disbursements June 2014 |
Gotnews.com will continue to provide evidence to the necessary authorities and will continue to cooperate with FEC and FBI investigations.
Gotnews.com has reached out to Shook through her Facebook account. She can also be reached through her Pinterest account through her username amshook.
Citzens for Cochran paid out just $2,426 in payroll taxes to Mississippi Department of Revenue for time period from 4/16-5/15.
Shannon Knutsen contributed to this report."
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From NY Times, 6/16/14, Mississippi Church address listed for a Cochran campaign PAC, "All Citizens for Mississippi." Church risks losing favorable tax status:
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| NY Times twitter |
6/16/14, "A Church-PAC Link Raises Questions in Mississippi," NY Times, Derek Willis, The Upshot
"The full-page advertisement in Mississippi Link,
[bottom of pg.] a weekly newspaper aimed at black residents of Jackson, the state’s
capital, urged readers to vote for Senator Thad Cochran in the June 3
Republican primary.
That
might be unremarkable except for one thing: The political action
committee that paid for the ad
“All Citizens for Mississippi” did not appear to exist at the time of the ad’s publication. Its registration as a super PAC
with the Federal Election Commission was posted online last week and
contains one important clue about its origins. All Citizens for
Mississippi shares an address with New Horizon Church International in Jackson and also names Jacqueline Vann, the church’s chief financial officer, as its treasurer.
If
church resources were used by the PAC, that could be “potentially
problematic" for the church, said Michael Toner, a partner at the Wiley
Rein law firm and a former F.E.C. chairman. “The people who are
associated with churches, you can be involved in politics, but need to
do so in your personal capacity. That’s the dividing line: Is it in
their personal capacity?”
The danger for the church is that it, like other I.R.S.-approved charities, could lose its tax status if it participates in a political campaign,
whether for or against a candidate. The advertisement appears to have
appeared around the same time the group’s F.E.C. registration form was
filled out, but the PAC has not filed an independent expenditure report
describing the expenditure or any reports listing its donors. An email
and a phone call to Ms. Vann at the church’s offices were not
immediately returned.
.
.
The
ad, with a big picture of a smiling Mr. Cochran, asked Democrats to
vote for him. It cited the senator as having received praise from
Democrats and Republicans alike for providing more than $18 million to
Mississippi’s historically black colleges and universities.
“The
decision on who is going to be our next senator is going to be made in
the republican primary,” the text at the bottom of the ad reads, keeping
the names of the political parties in lowercase. “We’re asking
democrats to cross over and vote in the republican primary to ensure our
community’s interest is heard.”
Mr. Cochran was unable to win a majority of votes in the Republican primary June 3. He faces Chris McDaniel, a state senator, in a June 24 runoff election."
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Derek Willis NY Times Twitter
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Derek Willis NY Times Twitter
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Filed for organization at Church address, 6/6/14:
An African-American church shilling for the
likes of Thad Cochran: Is there a better indication that electoral
politics is irreparably broken?"
Isn't it time to close the loophole for
'churches?' So many people are abusing the tax code; churches who want
to weigh in on politics and many more who just fraudulently claim to be a
"church." Even if they were cheating, why should religious
organizations be tax-exempt anyway? Do not they also get the advantages
of doing their business in America? If so, they should contribute."
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More on Mississippi walking around money:
7/1/14, "Cochran campaign denies vote-buying reports," Clarion-Ledger, Geoff Pender
"The U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran campaign is denying reports from a conservative blogger that it was trying to buy votes in Lauderdale County.
Blogger Charles C. Johnson of GotNews.com is reporting that Stevie Fielder says the Cochran campaign told him to offer black voters in the Meridian area $15 each to vote for Cochran in the June 24 GOP primary runoff against state Sen. Chris McDaniel.
Cochran campaign spokesman Jordan Russell called the accusations of illegal vote buying "baseless and false."
"It comes from a blogger who in the last 24 hours has accused a Mississippi public official of being responsible for an individual's death and had to retract other outlandish accusations regarding another Mississippi elected official," Russell said. "The author of this article admits he paid his source for the story."
The report comes as McDaniel continues to examine records from the June 24 runoff that he narrowly lost and to consider a challenge of the results. Tea party groups supporting McDaniel have cried foul over the runoff, in which traditionally Democratic and independent voters helped Cochran narrowly win the Republican primary.
The GotNews report includes text messages Fielder says are from Cochran campaign Minority Outreach Director Saleem Baird, who is on leave from Sen. Roger Wicker's office while campaigning for Cochran. They include discussions of the campaign asking for names and addresses to provide envelopes of money. Fielder said the campaign agreed to pay him $16,000 but stiffed him on payment.
Fielder could not be reached for comment early Tuesday. Russell said the campaign hired Fielder for get-out-the-vote work.
"We hire a lot of people — black, white, young, old — to help with get-out-the-vote efforts," Russell said. "… Whether you're a high school kid in northeast Jackson or a retired nurse in Greenwood, if you're out working doors for us, you get paid in cash, in an envelope. Saleem asked the guy for names and addresses for (Federal Election Commission) filing purposes. Why would you ask a guy for names and addresses if you're buying votes?"
Jordan said the campaign agreed to pay Fielder $600, half up front, for campaign work.
"He was paid for reimbursement for gas, driving people around, get-out-the-vote work," Russell said.
"But he never completed any work for the second $300. He never provided any names and addresses of people he said he was getting....He waffled on providing names and addresses."
Russell said the campaign's "standard rate" for people knocking on doors and doing other GOTV work is "$25 a shift — $25 in the morning, then a lunch break, then $25 for the afternoon."
"This is obviously a guy who...sold his story to a blogger who's openly proclaiming he will pay people to tell him a story," Russell said. "…Most disturbing is (Johnson) is attempting to solicit pictures of Mrs. Rose Cochran in her nursing home, with a bounty up to $1,000."
State Sen. Michael Watson of the McDaniel campaign on Tuesday said he hopes the allegations are investigated....
The report says Fielder is an associate pastor at First Missionary Baptist Church in Meridian. Church Deacon Robert Markham said Fielder is not an associate pastor at the church but is a self-proclaimed minister.
Church member Melba Clark, a member of the Lauderdale County Democratic Executive Committee and its former longtime chairman, said she doesn't believe any vote buying happened....
Both Markham and Clark say Fielder's reputation in the area is less than stellar....Markham said he has not heard of any vote buying in the church or community....
State House Speaker Pro tem Greg Snowden, R-Meridian, said he hired Fielder for campaign work in 2011—as is being pointed out in social media and blog reports.
"I hired the guy to help me campaign in the black community," Snowden said. "He put up signs and helped turn out the vote for me. I haven't talked to or seen him for a couple of years."...
Snowden said that he doubts there was any vote buying in Lauderdale in the June 24 runoff, in part from just looking at results....
Fielder claimed in the GotNews report — which has been picked up by numerous national conservative websites — that while he wasn't paid money he was promised, he was given cash in envelopes to distribute in exchange for Cochran votes and that other people were doing likewise.
Russell said Cochran is considering litigation over the allegations....
Cochran supporters also faced claims of vote buying weeks ago, before the runoff vote, after a super PAC supporting Cochran hired a Democratic political operative to turn out votes. State Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole said he heard reports of "walking around money" being handed out and vote buying.
Brandon Jones, director of the Mississippi Democratic Trust, on Tuesday said state officials need to investigate the claims.
"This election has already provided more than its share of tragic and bizarre stories," Jones said.
"Now, the specter of election fraud has been raised. The citizens of this state were sold a package of voting laws by leaders who told us that their main concern was election integrity. These leaders, like Secretary of State (Delbert) Hosemann, now have an opportunity to show that all the talk about protecting the vote wasn't politics as usual. Because election integrity laws should never be enforced selectively based on party, we call on Secretary Hosemann and local law enforcement officials to treat these allegations with the seriousness they deserve.""
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