A Claremore businessman, Chad Choat, has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission aimed at 5th District congressional candidate Mike Turner.
Writing on his Facebook page, Choat writes, “Yesterday I filed a complaint with the Federal Election commission regarding Mike Turner’s violation of campaign finance law. As of March 31st Mr. Turner had failed to create a legal campaign committee. …To date, all of Mr. Turner’s campaign activities have been conducted outside of the FEC legal framework. Failing to adhere to the rule of law at worst disqualifies him as a candidate and at the very least raises serious questions about his viability as a candidate for congress, and leaves no confidence amongst the public that he will be a reformer when he fails to submit himself from day one to the same rules that apply to everyone else. This should cause all Oklahomans to ask why he failed to file proper paperwork and has not been transparent about the source of his campaign funds.
“Some may ask why a business owner from outside the fifth congressional district would file a complaint with the FEC. We as Oklahomans say that we want to reform how Washington does business. That starts with obeying the law. There is an unfortunate habit in Congress of people exempting themselves from the regulations that apply to everyone else. If our candidates can’t obey the law while they are running for office how can we expect them to change Washington? I look forward to the findings of the FEC and I would encourage all voters to be well informed as we seek what is best for the future of this great nation.”
http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/dcdev/forms/C00561738/
This was easy to find. Even for me.
Cinbin: “Filed 4/22/2014”, Way past the deadline of Turner giving a full accounting of all activities up to March 31st. He told the Daily Oklahoman he put in 500k and had spent 170,000 with no documentation to back it up.
I’m wondering where his money came from in the first place…isn’t he 27 and just finished school? One year of work in the state house doesn’t raise half a million unless something fishy is happening.
Cinbin that sure was a fast reply, perchance you are part Turner’s camp expecting someone would catch this? I’m looking at the statement, and then your response, and this does pique interest especially with your fast retort.
1. Your link is to a quarterly report. From the statement, this concern is related to not filing a campaign committee by a deadline. This is the way the FEC monitors if donations are legal, where the money comes from, if it falls within contribution limits, and if the money is spent within the rules. It is due ten days after filing a statement of candidacy, This is a practice which all candidates must follow per the FEC. Who has been elected without a campaign committee, which is a basic component of a campaign? I can understand the person’s concern with someone doing an end run around that monitoring by not complying with a rule that is followed by literally every other candidate in the country. The statement published talks about a March 31st date with no campaign committee organized.
2. Your response and link does not give detail on anything that is discussed in the statement. All that is visible in your link is a quarterly report was filed on April 22. Is that another violation? The quarterly reports were due on April 15 or 16th. Methinks you just exposed another issue with young Turner.
Trust fund.
This is just stupid. Turner’s filings are on line. The stuff about why someone outside the district would do this is the most hilarious part of the whole thing. One of Steve Russell’s consultant- Phil Jackson- lives in Claremore where this guy also lives. Surprise! By the way- Tom Coburn’s campaigns were fined thousands of dollars by the FEC. Did that disqualify him?
An AP story published on April 20 stated:
“State Rep. Mike Turner, R-Edmond, did not file a report — and may not have been required to since he didn’t declare his federal candidacy until mid-March — but he has raised enough money to purchase television time.”
I am not familiar with state election filing requirements. Do any of you know if this is a valid excuse for not filing by the deadline?
The fec website has info here – looks pretty plain:
http://www.fec.gov/ans/answers_candidate.shtml#register
If you are running for the U.S. House, Senate or the Presidency, you must register with the FEC once you (or persons acting on your behalf) receive contributions or make expenditures in excess of $5,000. Within 15 days of reaching that $5,000 threshold, you must file a Statement of Candidacy (FEC Form 2 [PDF]; Instructions [PDF]) authorizing a principal campaign committee to raise and spend funds on your behalf. Within 10 days of that filing, your principal campaign committee must submit a Statement of Organization (FEC Form 1 [PDF]; Instructions [PDF]). Your campaign will thereafter report its receipts and disbursements on a regular basis.
fec website as to the quarterly report:
http://www.fec.gov/info/report_dates_2014.shtml#quarterly
April Quarterly for Congressional
Period Covered – March 31, 2014
Deadline April 15, 2014
Sounds like some people are super confused! If they think the candidate has to file a campaign committee, they are wrong. That is for PACs such as the one that is supporting Shannon (US Senate) where they filed as the wrong type of PAC. And of course that group doesn’t want to report where they are getting their money
Looks like Mike Turner has filed his reports and he states where he gets his money – his own bank account! Let’s not play dirty politics…. supporters need to support their candidate instead of trying to trash the opponents.
Edmond Voter, please cite the fec reg that negates the fec regulations posted above pertaining directly to the candidate and the candidates authorized committee. The very first sentence of the guidelines on forming your committee begins with “If YOU are running…” and then details that your candidate committee must be filed. It also says that ‘once 5,000 has been spent’. It doesn’t matter where the money comes from – your own bank account or outside donors. The paperwork has to be filed.
We have all been seeing the airwaves flooded with PAC commercials – a PAC is not authorized by a candidate or a candidate committee – note their disclaimers at the end of every ad a PAC runs, so that is a whole separate issue not related to the candidate and candidate committee regulations.
That’s nice of Mr Turners’ lackeys on this thread to help us avoid getting confused about who needs to file this or that., and when. Looks like all the other candidates filed theirs. Maybe being a trust fund baby has it’s privileges. Can’t play by rules now, won’t play by rules later.
I think I’ll just wait and see what the FEC has to say about it. They know the rules, and enforce them. I’ll bet Mr Turner has a big problem.
Some of us that happen to be born into lives of privilege take exception to your remarks about rich kids. We have to make big decisions too. Life at Heritage Hall wasn’t always easy. We had to pick out our own clothes, choose how well done we liked our filets, and which polo pony to ride in the Spring Tournament. So don’t pick on Mr Turner because he’s a trust fund kid. We didn’t ask to be born into it, it just happened, and it can be tough sometimes. I think Mr Turner will look out for those of us at the top that need a friend in Washington. My kind of guy.