School Board Candidates Backed By Stand For Children Face Record Fines

Four losing school board challengers in the August election were issued show cause notices on Tuesday from the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance for some of their dealings with Stand for Children, and the parties, including candidates Miranda Christy, Thom Druffel, Jackson Miller and Jane Grimes Meneely, face massive fines for violations of the state's Campaign Financial Disclosure Law.

A copy of the order appears below.

Stand PAC for Tennessee and Stand for Children Independent Expenditure Committee poured more than $70,000 into each race. By statute, the candidates and PACs face civil penalties of "115 percent of the contributions in excess of the statutory maximum," according to the letter. That could make it one of the highest fines in the Registry's history, potentially reaching more than half a million dollars. The current record fine was against Sen. Jerry Cooper, who was assessed a $120,000 fine in 2007.

"Those are the maximum. The potential violation is that Stand for children gave too much and that the candidate received too much," said Drew Rawlins, the Registry's executive director. Depending on the findings of the board, candidates and the PACs might not be assessed the same.

"The board has discretion based on the facts," he said.

Stand's Nashville director Dan O'Donnell's meeting with Druffel during a blackout period and O'Donnell's emails with Martha O'Bryan CEO Marsha Edwards were among the violations outlined in the show cause letter. 

Stand for Children and the candidates have the opportunity to appear before the registry on Oct. 12 to argue whether the fines should be assessed. Here are the amounts spent by the Stand PACs (not including the final disclosure, which is due in October).

The complaint was originally filed by Nashville resident Michelle Baldwin in August. 

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