State election finance officials have levied an $80,000 fine against former top Republican aide Cade Cothren for obscuring his involvement in the Faith Family Freedom PAC during the 2020 election cycle.
State proceedings, prompted by a whistleblower’s complaint in October 2020, were delayed due to a federal trial related to Cothren’s involvement in another campaign finance shell game. Along with his former boss Glen Casada — the state's onetime House speaker — Cothren faced prison time for the scandal before receiving a pardon from President Trump in November. Cothren says he plans to challenge the decision.
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Cothren has dodged various scandals, penalties and fines related to his time as a top Republican operative. His relevance peaked as an aide to Casada in 2019. Evidence later showed that Cothren was involved in campaign finance schemes including the Phoenix Solutions scandal, a money-funneling operation for which both were later sentenced.
The state’s Registry of Election Finance, a division within Tennessee’s Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, assessed the maximum possible fine to Cothren for eight separate violations, each of which carries a potential fine up to $10,000. Cothren’s attorneys at Sims Funk received official paperwork noticing the civil penalty from the bureau’s executive director, William Young, on Feb. 26. The registry's plans to fine Cothren were first reported by Tennessee Lookout in January.
Attorney Greg Hazelwood initially raised questions with the Registry of Election Finance about Cothren’s Faith Family Freedom PAC in a complaint filed Oct. 28, 2020. The bureau also relied on extensive testimony from Sydney Friedopfer, a former Vanderbilt student recruited by Cothren to sign as the Faith Family Freedom PAC’s treasurer and seemingly obscure his involvement in the committee. The ethics review referred to this as a "strawwoman" strategy that included eight separate misrepresentations: Friedopfer's initial signature as the PAC treasurer, and seven subsequent campaign finance statements. The letter references but does not describe disciplinary action for Friedopfer, who cooperated with the bureau's investigation.
“The Registry concludes [Cothren] violated Tennessee’s campaign finance statutes by intentionally deceiving both the public and the REgistry that he was in fact the treasurer of the PAC,” reads the decision. “Ms. Friedopfer served as nothing more than a facade to intentionally avoid reporting his position as the actual treasurer of the PAC and thereby avoid disclosing his role as the true treasurer of the PAC as required by Tennessee’s election finance laws.”
According to Friedopfer’s sworn testimony, she signed committee paperwork and forwarded Cothren PAC-related information while he served as the functional treasurer. Cothren denies that the two were romantically involved, calling the rumor “just another lie carefully crafted by GOP leadership.” Cothren did not respond to the registry’s subpoena, the decision says, foregoing the opportunity to testify in his own defense. Additional allegations describe further violations by the PAC in the course of reporting contributions and spending money for GOP candidates.
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“In short, unlike in the land of Oz, Tennessee’s campaign finance statutes require disclosure of the person acting as a PAC treasurer,” the ruling continues. “That identity cannot be concealed behind a drawn curtain.”
Since falling from the speaker’s office, Cothren has positioned himself against Tennessee’s existing GOP establishment. He recently told Scene sister publication the Nashville Post that he intends to challenge Rep. Kip Capley in Tennessee House District 71, a rural seat that includes parts of Columbia, Waynesboro and Lawrenceburg.
Cothren blames the fine on GOP leaders sabotaging his political comeback.
"If there's one thing I've learned over the last few years, it's that entrenched bureaucrats and career politicians will do anything to protect their power," Cothren tells the Scene in a statement. "They ignore the rules when their friends break them, then invent problems the moment someone they can't control threatens the system. That's what this bogus action is about."
