Revenge is a dish best served cold, they say.
When it comes to Rep. Lance Pruitt, the campaign finance revenge complaints against him are very cold indeed.
The Alaska Public Offices Commission staff is seeking a large fine against Pruitt for various minor violations of campaign finance rules accrued in 2016 and 2018.
A handful of administrative errors and omissions on Pruitt’s reports were not discovered when APOC performed a routine audit of his campaign in 2016. The methodology he used in 2016, he continued in 2018, thinking all was well, since neither he nor APOC found anything amiss in his books.
But a treasurer who works on Democrat campaigns, Paula DeLaiarro, weaponized the APOC rules to hurt Pruitt politically at the end of the 2020 campaign. She found errors and omissions that, although minor, are now thousands of days old. That is going to hurt Pruitt financially.
Pruitt may not be the only candidate in DeLaiarro’s crosshairs. As one who makes a living defeating Republicans, she may be after other candidates, but she has up to five years to lodge a complaint and it’s to her war-room advantage to wait for as long as possible in order to rack up the most impactful fines against her company’s political foes.
DeLaiarro sent the complaint that stretches back four years to APOC in October, one month from the end of the election, forcing Pruitt to focus his attention on it, rather than his tight campaign against Liz Snyder, who ultimately won by 11 votes. The tactic was meant to embarrass Pruitt and distract him from campaigning.
Small administrative issues on a campaign report can bring fines that can add up to, in this case, over $1 million. Typically these fines are greatly reduced in the final accounting, as this one has been.
Because of the time that had lapsed — 1,500 days times $50 to $500 a day — the fine looks more serious than the offenses would appear to ordinary Alaskans. The Democrat operatives at Ship Creek Group, where DeLaiarro works, know that, and are taking advantage of it.
Pruitt will no doubt argue to the commission that most of the complaints brought forward by DeLaiarro were matters that were reported in good faith and that were remedied, where necessary.
‘This is the kind of thing that will discourage people from running because of the heavy hammer they can come down on you with,” Pruitt said. “It doesn’t do anything that APOC is supposed to do — which is to protect the public trust. Every dollar is accounted for. Everything is listed. There’s nothing to these but administrative. They audited it, they didn’t find anything,” he said. If they had found something in 2016, he would not have operated the same way in 2018.
The errors listed by APOC include
- Pruitt accepted more than $500 from one donor in 2016. The excess amount has already been returned when the error was discovered by Pruitt.
- Pruitt received a $250 contribution from an unregistered political group in 2018. Pruitt says he didn’t know the group was unregistered, but the group evidently failed to finish its own APOC paperwork.
- Pruitt failed to provide details of advertising purchased in 2016 and 2018. He says he provided details as soon as they were known.
- Pruitt improperly reimbursed himself for campaign expenses. He has corrected that.
“Staff recommends that the Commission find that Pruitt’s 2016 and 2018 campaign for House District 27 violated provisions of AS 15.13 by failing to accurately report incurred expenditures as debt, failing to provide information detailing media advertising placement and consulting services rendered, failing to timely reimburse personal funds or report the use of personal funds as contributions, and failing to return two prohibited contributions,” according to APOC.
Pruitt will take his case to the commission itself at its Jan. 13 meeting, but he will be forced to defend himself over the computer, which puts him at a disadvantage in front of a commission that will be on the other end of the Zoom lens.
So reporting crimes is ‘weaponizing’ the very offices meant to enforce these laws?
Pruitt has been in public office for almost 10 years and still can’t file paperwork correctly. This falls squarely on him – nobody else. He is in public office and is responsible for making laws, so you’d think he should know a little more about laws pertaining to public office.
The official APOC report reads: “Staff believes the violations in this matter are serious and strike at the heart of the transparency Alaska’s campaign disclosure laws seek. However, staff recognizes that a combined civil penalty of $1,022,250, about 6 times the total amount raised and spent
across both campaigns, is excessive and overly punitive. Instead, staff recommends a civil
penalty in the amount of $10,222.50, which represents a 99% reduction of the maximum
penalties.”
He screwed up big time, and he should pay a price for these serious violations.
When your side does it, the offense becomes a forgivable mistake. When our side does it, it becomes a crime (your term, btw). Nice to have two systems of justice in operation these days.
You guys need to be careful, as I don’t think your’re gonna enjoy playing under your new rules a lot. Cheers –
The very same agency found nothing amiss in 2016 and 2018… strange that now it’s an issue of such gargantuan proportions in order to “protect the public”.
Sounds like a page out of the IRS + Tea Party playbook,
FBI + Comey + Flynn edition. “Nothing to see here, everything’s fine… oh, wait, it’s one of “those” people.
Clearly Jam,es E : you have never ran for Public office and face the mine field of rules in most cases set up to impede such an effort!!! The APOC should be there to HELP everyone through the process as it does its job in stead of engaging in Counter-Productive actions that give No protection to either the person running for office or the Public…This kind of over-reaction by the APOC staff should never be allow as it sends a clear message that it has been used as a tool to cause damage and not fix a old problem that has been admitted to and fixed long ago. I hope the board reverses this action and we move on to other recent and important work on its plate.
Reading the stories on MRAC it occurs to me that the Democrats are getting ready for an all out assault on American/ Western Values. From the mean spirited accusations leveled at Pruitt to this silly woman and her Restorative Justice jibberish to the Anchorage Assembly pogroms leveled upon small business. If it is true that China (CCP) infiltrated our elections this November, they certainly found willing help within the leadership of the Democratic party.
You can rest assured that China had EVERYTHING to do with this past election cycle because they despised Trump just as the rest of the worlds leaders; mostly. What we need to do is accept the fact that the USA we know/knew is on the way out. Embrace and fall in line with an ever increasing tax bill, an intrusive overreaching government and a loss of freedoms that we hold dear.
The “mean spirited accusations” are actually violations of Alaska Statutes. Not the first time I have heard that rulings conservatives don’t like are an assault on Western values
Cancel culture strikes again.
The APOC recommendations are based on Alaska Statutes. I thought Republican were in the law and order party? If the laws are unfair, maybe the laws should be changed?
Frank, stop being so disingenuous. You almost certainly know damn well that many laws are so complex, onerous to comply with, and simply so open to interpretation that almost anyone can be found to be “guilty” of almost anything, if the microscope of hyper-partisan and vindictive opponents are brought to bear sufficiently hard enough and long enough.
It is instructive to note that it is virtually always leftists who engage in this sort of nit-picking and downright malevolent behavior.
Maybe, but Pruitt’s violations seem to be pretty specific and sharply defined. The fact that they may not have been discovered earlier is due to the fact that APOC doesn’t have a whole lot of resources to check on everyone. The “Oops, I didn’t know I done wrong” defense is pretty pathetic for a sitting legislator. And I don’t buy the idea that APOC is weaponizing judgments against certain, put upon individuals. Try that one out on the officer who pulls you over for going over $500 late on a Saturday night.
By the way, Frank, how are you enjoying the tightly censored little echo-chamber that the ADN has created of their comments sections? Did you know that they have banned many poster there, including myself, simply for expressing opinions contrary to their narrow political orthodoxy, such as challenging the mask mandates or heavy-handed lockdowns?
The APOC likely treated Rep Pruitt fairly and was working with him… The attack smells of Beltrami, the Alaska mob, and Big itchy Mark. This is not justice. That Lance was working with them on these issues concurrently with their discovery points to his honesty and the dishonesty of the swampy dems. What do you expect from a group that names itself for bottom land?
I’m curious why it took so long for these concerns to come to light.
Once again, here we got a great example how the Law should not apply to the part of the Law and Order.
Pruitt received a $250 contribution from an unregistered political group in 2018. Pruitt says he didn’t know the group was unregistered, but the group evidently failed to finish its own APOC paperwork.
I have seen instances where the person they were running against did something like this, or at least one of the staff “without their knowledge”. If the agency went over it before and completed audits, then the APOC employees need to be charged with conspiracy since they are going after him. They obviously knew or should have known their jobs. Stop allowing people to hide behind non-elected public sector jobs and their cancerous unions. These government organizations constantly use things like hidden tax law that you did not know about or minor violations that their organization did not catch before. Stop protecting people that get paid to do a bad job.
Poor Lance. I heard he’s going to work as a legislative assistant for Rep. Eastman.
It amazes me how some laws are so strictly enforced while others just don’t seem to matter.
How many absentee applications should had been denied from that district race because of lacking a witness verification?
These kind of complaints is why leaders need bible and regular fellowship in a bible reading and bible preaching church even while outside their home community. This way they are wearing the the Armor of God Ephesians 6:10-18, so when the other side comes forward with complaints they are bogus and have no merit. Look how many Arrows the Left threw at President Trump and they kept missing him and their bogus claims only increased their own anger.
These people don’t need bible anything. They need a sense of moral responsibility, personal responsibility, the stuff conservatives are all saying we need when it comes to dealing with the coronavirus.
Probably the laws need to be changed if they can be used in this way. Going back to previous elections. I had to do a little APOC research this past election year re: raising support for a candidate & discouraging support for another via mail flyers. It was very confusing. I thought I understood it but actually I did not. I think if you want to run for office or begin some sort of political campaign involving $$ contributions is hire an attorney who has knowledge of APOC rules to handle the entire process. Which then precludes many from the political process in the first place because they cannot afford the cost or financial risk. It reminds me of reading IRS rules. You think you understand it, but you really do not & it can really destroy you financially if you don’t have it right. The rules are the rules but if they are so easy to break by error or misunderstanding maybe they need to be changed to be more user friendly & not used as political weapons.
Yes the law is the law. However re-read the four bullet points from the article. Point out which of them is egregious enough to warrant a one million dollar fine.
I won’t resort to WhatAboutism. But you on the left don’t realize you live a charmed political existence. We on the right can have million dollar fines levied for minor issues like accepting $250 from a group, and the offense is based on THEM failing to complete their paperwork.
Meanwhile your presidential candidate can extort a billion dollars worth of political favors for his son, admit it on camera, and suffer zero consequences. ZERO. If we had a media in America willing to pursue truth regardless of political party, this stuff would stop.
MRAK is one of the only news outlets still doing it the right way. Thanks Suzanne!
Well said!!
Politics what a racket. Do you ever wonder what is so attractive that you would fight to get into politics.
What ever happened to the issues with Gabreille LeDoux? Nothing but crickets SSDD
“Because of the time that had lapsed — 1,500 days times $50 to $500 a day — the fine looks more serious than the offenses would appear to ordinary Alaskans. The Democrat operatives at Ship Creek Group, where DeLaiarro works, know that, and are taking advantage of it.”
Laches? We ain’t got no laches, we don’t need no stinking laches!
Repubs….all the best people
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