Blackburn Sofa Yields $100,000 Haul

More than $100,000 has been found in the cushions of a sofa once belonging to U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn.

Fairview resident E.C. Stubbs, who was amazed by his good fortune, purchased the couch last weekend at a Williamson County yard sale.

“I thought it was a pretty good-looking couch,” he says. “It’s leather and comfortable and, except for a little buttock-wear in one of the seat cushions, it still looks new. I paid $135 for it, marked down from $165.”

Blackburn, the Republican who represents the 7th Congressional District, has recently amended years of Federal Election Commission filings and admitted that her office failed to report more than $250,000 in campaign spending and just over $100,000 in donations.

“So that’s where that money went!” Blackburn exclaimed when reached at the annual Franklin GOP “Guns Not Gays” picnic. “We’ve just been tearing our hair out about it. Hundred-thousand here, hundred-thousand there—it’s just too easy for money to go astray.”

She recalls her office donated the sofa to charity several months ago when her congressional office was redecorated.

Stubbs says he knew something was different about the couch as soon as he bought it: “When me and my boy Clay lifted it to put it in the back of my truck, we couldn’t believe how heavy it was,” he says.

“After we carried it into the den at the house, we got out our Miele vacuum cleaner to clean it up good, and, dang, the couch was full of money—nickels, dimes, quarters and paper money stuffed down in cracks all over it.”

For her part, Blackburn says that she will not be requesting that Stubbs return the money.

“I lost the money, and Mr. Stubbs bought the couch fair and square. I’m just crossing my fingers that the FEC will buy this explanation,” she says.