Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Hannan / Politics Eric Crafton Is Downright Pathological
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 1:35 PM
The latest "misunderstanding" swirling around English Only involves campaign finance disclosure. As you may remember, up to this point Crafton & Co. have gotten almost all of their cash from ProEnglish, an Arlington, Va-based hate group. Why can't they raise money locally? BECAUSE EVERYONE IN NASHVILLE HATES THEIR AMENDMENT!
Sorry. Carrying on...
So last week, Crafton sent a letter to the election commission asking for a filing extension. The commission wrote back, telling him they didn't have the authority to do that. But, since they didn't just hand the letter to Crafton personally, he says he doesn't have to comply until he actually receives the letter. In person.
The Tennessean reported that this weekend. But what they failed to make clear was this: THERE'S NEVER BEEN A PROVISION FOR EXTENSIONS. It's not that Election Administrator Ray Barrett made a decision based on a coin-flip. Eric Crafton asked for something that DOES NOT EXIST.
Jesus, where's the Midol?
So what's this mean? Well, because there's a five-day grace period before any sort of fines get levied, the polls are going to close before voters get the chance (THE RIGHT GRANTED TO THEM BY A REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT) to actually know who's bankrolling these measures.
Minor issue for some, considering we all know it's been ProEnglish all along. Or as Crafton puts it: "90-95% of our contributors (ital. ours) will be regular folks that contribute $100 or less." Right. So 99 people could give $1 a piece, ProEnglish could give $25,000 and Crafton would still, technically, be right.
The semantic wordplay...it's too much!
Where's that Cheney pic? Ahhh, yes, that's the juice.
Comments (8)
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I doubt Crafton is the one with the obligation to file anything with the election commission. Whatever entity has received the contributions and paid for the advertising has an obligation to file. And whoever has been named the Treasurer for that PAC will likely have some personal liability. And they SHOULD make a financial disclosure in compliance with the law.
But I don't think it's Crafton. It's the PAC and the PAC Treasurer who are on the hook.
Since Crafton is the one who pushed to get this election and he has been the chief (only) spokesman on the issue and he is the ONE who sent the letter asking for an extension then he is indeed the responsible party. It isn't about liability but about transperancy and truthfulness which sadly he seems to be lacking.
You're right, RedHatRob, the onus for filing falls on English Only's treasurer, not Crafton.
The problem is that Crafton is the one who muddies this issue, using the collective "we" only when it's convenient. For example, he'll say WE sent a letter to the election commission. But if you ask him if he got a letter back, forcing him to disclose, he'll say "I'M not the one responsible."
We're just trying to pay homage to the same consistency he uses when speaking to us.
The folks who need to file are Nashville English First. They are the organizers of the petition drive and the purchasers of radio ad time.
Eric Crafton is the head (and, for the most part, body) of Nashville English First.
