Tag: Fine (penalty)

Vote Leave has been fined £61,000 and reported to the police by the Electoral Commission after the watchdog found “significant evidence” of coordination with another campaign group, BeLeave. The watchdog said it had imposed punitive fines on Vote Leave because it said the group had refused to cooperate fully with its investigation and declined to be interviewed. Its former chief executive, Matthew Elliott, had previously alleged it was the Electoral Commission that had refused to cooperate. The commission’s full report said Vote Leave repeatedly refused to attend interviews. The commission made two further offers of interview dates but said Vote Leave “began to repeat procedural questions we had already answered”. The documents made available were then found to be incorrect or incomplete. He said Vote Leave was contesting the claims and accused the watchdog of “a highly political agenda”. He said his group followed “the letter of the law and spirit of the law” and alleged that the commission had not interviewed senior figures from Vote Leave. The investigation also found the campaign group Veterans for Britain inaccurately reported a donation it received from Vote Leave. It said Vote Leave had repeatedly made it clear it was willing to be interviewed.

Banks responded by accusing the commission of a “politically motivated attack on Brexit” and threatened to take legal action. It said services the group received from the US campaign strategists Goddard Gunster before the referendum officially began were not included in the spending return despite a proportion of them having been used during Leave.EU’s referendum campaign. The commission also found that Leave.EU inaccurately reported three loans it had received from companies controlled by Banks. “Finally, Leave.EU failed to provide the required invoice or receipt for 97 payments of over £200, totalling £80,224.” However, the commission found no evidence that Leave.EU received donations or paid-for services from Cambridge Analytica for its referendum campaigning and found that the relationship with the political campaign agency “did not develop beyond initial scoping work”. He said: “It seems highly unlikely that in this case the named responsible officer was acting on purely her own designs.” Bob Posner, the commission’s director of political finance and regulation and legal counsel, described the breaches as “serious offences” and said it was disappointing that a key player in the referendum campaign had broken the rules. These are serious offences. “We view the Electoral Commission announcement as a politically motivated attack on Brexit and the 17.4 million people who defied the establishment to vote for an independent Britain.” He added: “The EC went big game fishing and found a few ‘aged’ dead sardines on the beach. That decision meant that while Vote Leave was able to spend £7m during the final weeks of the referendum campaign, Leave.EU was legally only allowed to spend £700,000. However, Vote Leave faces a separate investigation into whether it also breached campaign finance rules by funnelling cash to other pro-Brexit groups in the final days of the referendum. The Electoral Commission’s chief executive, Claire Bassett, rejected claims of bias made by Banks.

On Tuesday night, WWE superstar Glenn Jacobs aka Kane won the Republican primary for mayor of Knox County, Tennessee by just 17 votes. Earlier this year, Jacobs, who made his debut with the WWE back in 1992, said he will quit wrestling if elected mayor of Knox County. In fact, pro wrestlers have become increasingly cozy with politics — from Jesse Ventura's successful political career in Minnesota to Glenn "Kane" Jacobs' successful run for the Knox County Republican mayoral nomination this week in East Tennessee to Jerry Lawler's two runs for mayor of Memphis. Lawler's campaign was marred by an arrest over an incident with a parking enforcement officer at Memphis International Airport. In the election, Herenton won his third term. Lawler made a second bid in a 2009 special election after Herenton, by then in his fifth term, resigned to run for Congress. Then-Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton won the special election, with Lawler finishing fifth in a crowded field. In Knox County, Jacobs — a WWE wrestler who goes by the name Kane — narrowly defeated a county commissioner and a third candidate to win the GOP nomination for county mayor Tuesday. Bob Backlund: He ran for Congress in Connecticut in 2000 as a Republican, but lost to the Democratic incumbent. In 2004, he tried again and won a county commission seat.

What word, I wondered, should I use to refer to people from that city. Some states that are dominated by a single party, like California and its Democratic supermajority, use a so-called “top two” primary system where candidates from both parties appear on the primary ballot and two advance to the general election. Often that means two Democrats run against each other in the general election, but proponents say that makes far more sense than a Democrat who received 100,000 votes in the primary facing a Republican who received 5,000. His donations to Democrats, including Gary Trauner in a Wyoming U.S. House seat and John Kerry for president, became an issue in his own House race against Cynthia Lummis 10 years ago. Gordon is, obviously, a Republican. “But I don’t think it could give him anything even close to a fatal blow.” “In the general election it could almost be an asset.” Others, like GOP consultant Liz Brimmer, said that past contributions to Democratic candidates would make Gordon stick out in the race -- and not in a good way, perhaps working against the leg up he has as a candidate with significant name recognition in Wyoming. “You’re running in a Republican primary in a very conservative, red state.” Gordon has not donated to any Democrats since the 2008 run against Lummis and before that time he was contributing to a mix of candidates from both parties. Gordon donated to both Sullivan and Thomas -- and both contributions were made following the general election in order to help the candidates retire campaign debt. “And when he knows and respects someone, he has stepped up to help.” Walker also pointed out that 90 percent of Gordon’s political donations have gone toward Republicans -- at an amount totaling nearly $80,000 -- and have included the state Republican party, the national Republican party, Enzi, John Barrasso, Mitt Romney and John McCain. He points to the decision by the Republican Central Committee, “which is a very conservative group of people,” to shortlist Gordon for appointment as treasurer in 2012.

BOSTON — As the state’s top election official, Secretary of State Bill Galvin must walk a fine line between politics and the oath of office. While he takes a constitutional pledge to remain impartial when it comes to running elections and overseeing voter registration, like other top elected officials, he runs for reelection every four years under a partisan banner in a race that he is largely responsible for overseeing. Zakim, a Boston city councilor, has made Galvin’s handling of the state elections office a key platform of his campaign and even accused the fellow Democrat of trying to dampen voter turnout in the upcoming primary. “The confidence of voters in the fairness of our elections is probably one of the central responsibilities for a secretary of state,” Zakim, 33, said in an interview. Rivera told the State House News Service that Galvin called him last month after he endorsed Zakim for secretary of state and launched into a tirade over the mayor taking sides against him in the primary. “I’ve had primary challengers like him before, ones that probably have more election experience than he does,” Galvin said in a interview. “He’s really walking a tightrope.” She said any action Galvin takes in terms of election rules between now and September is going to be viewed through a political lens, especially with Zakim seizing on the opportunity to criticize his tenure. Besides Zakim, Galvin faces a primary challenge from Brian Felder, a Swampscott Democrat. Galvin had $776,859 in his campaign account as of Feb. 28, while Zakim had $424,827, according to filings with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance. “Galvin has been around a long time, but hasn’t had a Democratic challenger like this,” she said.