Clear as Mud

State Elections Board Director (SEB) Kevin Kennedy gave the impression he would rather be having a root canal than testify for the state in the case against Scott Jensen and Sherry Schultz, and really who could blame him? He went to all that trouble to negotiate a settlement with the legislature that included clarification of the legislative rules and elimination of the partisan caucuses, and now he had to admit under oath that his agency aided and abetted “political activity” on state time. Then again, Kennedy’s agency is the controlling legal authority for campaign registration and financial reporting, and its hours of operation are 7:45 am -4:30 pm Monday – Friday.

There was some early discussion about the broad definition of contributions and whether using the Capitol to announce a state campaign is an in-kind contribution. Kennedy at one point said he believed that discussing finances or making decisions about campaigns in the Capitol was a violation of state law, but no one ever asked him about that. Then Kennedy went on to say that Elections Board staff often contacted Sherry Schultz to help correct errors that were made by Assembly Republicans filing campaign finance reports. Good thing they knew where to find her to discuss these financing issues.

It was good too that Schultz and Assembly GOP staffer, Paul Tessmer were so accommodating when it came to developing the electronic reporting system for campaign finance reports that the SEB uses today. Otherwise the SEB would not have been able to meet their statutory requirement for electronic filing. Kennedy complained that the legislature had directed the SEB to create the new reporting system, but did not provide the financial resources needed for its development.

So did Tessmer and Schultz’s system constitute an in-kind contribution to the State Elections Board?

Kennedy said while he didn’t think campaign finance reports were quite as complicated as tax returns, he said all campaign finance reports filed with the SEB have errors of some kind, and that SEB staff often referred Sherry Schultz’s questions regarding campaign finance reports to Kennedy or SEB legal counsel. So it’s not too complicated if you’re an elections attorney?

After all was said and done, Kevin Kennedy helped Schultz’s attorney Steve Morgan show that Schultz was not a political fundraiser, but an administrative assistance who was helping members to understand and comply with campaign finance laws and reporting requirements, and the State Elections Board was grateful to her for it.