 Nation PRESS RELEASE Todd Nation, candidate for Vigo County Clerk, today criticized his opponent Brad Newman for filing campaign finance reports that violate state campaign finance law. Newman filed campaign finance reports in both 2019 and 2020 that show lump sum deposits from his annual golf outing, with no information on who donated or how much they donated. Indiana campaign finance law clearly states that every donation to a campaign over $100 must be listed individually, along with who gave the donation, the person’s address and how much they gave. A copy of the 2020 Indiana Campaign Finance Manual can be found online here. Rules for itemizing contributions begin on page 23: https://www.in.gov/sos/elections/files/2020 Campaign Finance Manual.FINAL.COVID19.pdf “The fundamental reason for campaign finance reports is to disclose to the public who is funding campaigns for public office,” said Todd Nation. “Is Brad Newman taking donations from people who have contracts with the Clerk’s Office? Is he requiring his employees to donate to his campaign? The public can’t answer these questions because the only person who knows who gave most of the funds to Brad Newman’s campaign is Brad Newman.” Newman’s campaign finance reports show that in 2020, Newman raised $12,375 from his golf outing and reported it all as one lump sum donation without any other information on donors. Newman reports that he has raised $17,055 this year. The $12,375 he raised at the golf outing represents 73% of his total donations. There is no information identifying who they came from.  On his 2019 annual report, Newman did the same thing. His 2019 golf outing raised $10,395. So out of the $15,631 he raised last year, 67% of his listed donations have no information identifying who they came from.  All Vigo County campaign finance reports that have been filed are publicly available online here:
https://www.vigocounty.in.gov/egov/apps/document/center.egov?eGov_searchDepartment=3 “The obvious question is: doesn’t someone review these campaign finance reports to ensure that politicians aren’t breaking the law?” asked Nation. “The answer in Vigo County is that Brad Newman, as County Clerk, is responsible for reviewing his own reports. If our County Clerk is not following the disclosure rules, how can we expect other candidates to?” “The County Clerk is the top elections official in each Indiana county. Our Vigo County Clerk’s campaign reports must be held to the same legal and ethical standards as those of all other local elected officials,” Nation said. "If elected Clerk, I will continue to disclose who is funding my campaign, and I will communicate clearly with all local candidates to ensure that they understand the rules we are all supposed to be following when we declare our candidacy for public office." Comments are closed.
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October 2021
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