Ideology Over Ethics

Remember the government shutdown of 2013? Ted Cruz and his fellow Tea Party types obstructed the appropriation of funds to run the government for the fiscal year 2014. They were all bunched up about the Affordable Care Act, and used it as their excuse to put some 800,000 federal employees out of work and leave a million others wondering when they’d ever see a paycheck. They also used it as an opportunity to puff up their manly chests.

This is why I tell you that elections have consequences. When we elect people who say they hate gummint to BE the gummint, then this is what we get. A bunch of aging adolescents more interested in chestal puffery than doing the serious work of governing.

One of the consequences of the shutdown came at the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). What is the FEC?

From the website: In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) - the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections.

The FEC came about as a direct result of Watergate. The FEC publicly discloses where the campaign money comes from and where it goes.

Because of the government shutdown, all 339 FEC agency employees were furloughed. Months earlier, an independent auditor warned that the FEC’s information systems were at high risk for infiltration. And infiltrated they were. Chinese hackers launched an attack shortly after the shutdown. They crashed all of the computer systems – the computers that had all that information about where the money comes from and where it goes. There was nothing to prevent this from happening. No one was on duty, thanks to the folks who brought us the shutdown.

The FEC has been systematically defunded. The agency’s funding has been flat for five years. They have fewer staff now than in the last 15 years – despite the explosion in political spending. The analysts who read disclosure reports to check for compliance have a near quarter of a million page backlog. There are over 250 unresolved enforcement cases.

That’s why it took so long for the FEC to determine that Frank Guinta had broken campaign finance laws with his magic bank account and five years of ever changing lies. That’s why Frank Guinta was elected twice, in the face of those lies. We watched him stand in front of television cameras and accuse Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter of being a liar. There is no accountability or penalty for that kind of blatant dishonesty, far from it. The O’Brien rump caucus has lined up in support of Guinta. They never cared for him before, but now they figure if gummint says Frank is bad than Frank is good. We saw it in the responses to the Teletalk question “Should Frank Guinta Resign?” A number of people said no, because HILLARY. Ideology over ethics. Ideology over intellect.

Regulatory failures happen over and over. The environmental agencies that are supposed to look out for us have been pillaged and underfunded. The Upper Big Branch Coal Mine in Kentucky exploded and caused the death of 29 miners. This was after over a decade of safety violations that should have closed the mine down. The Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and spewing oil into the ocean for 87 days. The Deepwater Horizon had a spotty inspection record. None of the safety mechanisms in place to prevent the explosion or the oil spill worked.

This is what happens when we take away the funding and the fangs of the regulatory agencies. Corporations do not police themselves. They will do anything to avoid paying for their mistakes, especially those that require a huge cleanup. Their interest is in making money, and the occasional environmental disaster shouldn’t be allowed to interfere with that pursuit.

Very few politicians regulate themselves.  With the influx of money generated by the Citizens United decision (because free speech is mighty expensive) involved in the political process, we should all be concerned about the intentional (for what else can it be?) dismantling of the FEC.

It’s easy to dismiss the concerns about money as a federal elections issue. Trickle down economics has been an abysmal failure, but trickle down campaign money is proving quite successful. As we all know, the NH House is populated with 400 “volunteer” legislators. They earn a stipend of $100 a year and mileage reimbursement for their service. It used to be that a run for the NH House meant raising somewhere between $500 and $1000. Candidates needed signs and handouts for voters. Those days are over, as we learned during a recent special election for the NH House, in Rockingham District 32.

The special election was needed because the guy who was elected went to work for Frank Guinta (KARMA!) before he was ever sworn in. Former State Rep. Maureen Mann was uncontested in the Democratic primary. The GOP primary came down to two college students. One was arrested for violating a protective order shortly before the election. The other candidate, Yvonne Dean-Bailey, won the primary. Miss Dean-Bailey is a student at Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She’s one of the angry young libertea Republicans given special attention because she puts the rare female face on that brand of ideology.

Miss Dean-Bailey’s campaign for the NH House was amazingly well funded. She was the beneficiary of over $10,000 in PAC money alone. A young libertarian millionaire from Texas has a PAC that provided over $4,000 for mailings. He has no ties to NH. He is, however, more than willing to help buy a fellow ideologue a seat in a volunteer legislature.

Special interests expect a return on their investment. We should be concerned about that on every single level of our government. We need regulatory agencies to police those who lack integrity, but have plenty of cash. Pay to play is not democracy.

If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be Citizens United. I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

This was published as an op-ed in the May 29, 2015 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.  

How Do You Spell Apology?

I told you so.

For the last five years, I’ve been telling you that Frank Guinta was lying to us about his magic bank account. After an interminable FEC investigation, we learned this week that Frank DID break campaign finance laws by using his parent’s money to fund his campaign in 2010. He has to pay back the $355,000 he claimed he earned himself. He’s being fined $15,000. The Patriots are paying a million dollar fine for some deflated balls. Frank Guinta is being fined $15,000 for breaking campaign finance laws and betraying the public trust.

 In 2010, Frank Guinta, former mayor of Manchester, ran for Congress against incumbent Carol Shea-Porter. Over the course of the campaign, he loaned himself $355,000. It was done incrementally. In 2010 after one such incremental “loan”, a Nashua Telegraph reporter wondered, in print, where he’d gotten all that loan money. Twelve days later, Guinta filed a revised financial disclosure form that added a new bank account worth somewhere between $250,000 - $500,000. (The bank account had not appeared on previous disclosure forms.) He also altered the period of disclosure on the form, adding an additional 4 months. It seemed obvious that the account had been opened during that time, given his refusal to provide a bank statement.

When he was asked where the money came from, he said he earned it. He told the Union Leader that he’d begun putting money away in the mid-1990’s. The only problem was that his known assets and income – no matter how frugal he was – did not add up to him being able to save that kind of money.

In 2008, his parents sold a house in New Jersey for $820,000. It seemed obvious that they were the source of the mystery money, which he denied. For five years.

In July of 2010, Guinta’s campaign manger, Mike Biundo, said that Guinta had liquidated some of his stock market and mutual fund assets. Guinta said that Biundo had made a mistake, and he’d always had that money in a bank account he’d forgotten about. It’s so easy to misplace half a million dollars when you’re running for office.

In October, 2010 the Union Leader reported that Guinta denied accepting money from his parents to finance his campaign and that Carol Shea-Porter and the Democrats had stooped to a new low for implying he had.

Former GOP Congressman Jeb Bradley had been Guinta’s boss when Bradley was in Congress. He did not ever endorse his former staffer; in fact, he told Politico that if Guinta couldn’t account for the money he should withdraw from the race.

Fergus Cullen, former NHGOP Chair, wrote a piece for the Union Leader in August 2010, about the mystery money. He asked Guinta how he could have forgotten to list a bank account worth half a million in his previous disclosure forms. Guinta called it an “inadvertent oversight.”

He continued to insist that he earned the money, that his parents did not help him. A GOP activist filed the first complaint and later the NHDP also filed a complaint with the FEC. That complaint was filed in September 2010.

Guinta won the 2010 election, despite the questions about his finances. During the campaign he made a lot of noise about Congresswoman Shea-Porter abusing Congressional franking privileges. Frank went on to become the #1 abuser of the franking system for the 2011/2012 Congress, sending out big, shiny, multicolored mailers every week.  The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named Guinta one of the most corrupt legislators of the year.  He lost the 2012 election.

In 2014 Guinta ran again. He ran an ad featuring his mother and his wife, who assured voters that Saint Frank would be there for all of us. He ran an ad featuring “real NH voters.” The last woman in the ad said, “He’s always been honest.” In October the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) ran a couple of ads asking where the mystery money came from.

On October 27, 2014, WMUR televised a debate between Guinta and Shea-Porter. I was there. When Shea-Porter asked about the money, Guinta said he’d been cleared by the FEC, in Dec. 2010, before he was even sworn in, and he had been exonerated. He accused Carol of lying about his record, and huffily announced, “The people of NH ought to know the truth.” 

Then his campaign ran an ad called “The Truth.” The ad accuses Carol Shea-Porter of lying about Guinta’s finances. The ad claims Guinta was cleared 100% by the House Ethics Committee on 12/14/10. Again, before Guinta was ever even sworn in for his first term. The thing is, the House Ethics Committee never investigated him. He approved that ad.

At the debate he said he’d been cleared by the FEC. In the ad he claimed to have been exonerated by the House Ethics Committee. He knew both of those things to be untrue, but he didn’t hesitate to trumpet them loudly. The people of NH certainly deserved the truth, but Guinta was the last person they were ever going to hear it from.

This week, the FEC finally found him guilty of violating campaign finance laws. He has to pay the $355,000 back. He has to pay a $15,000 fine. He now claims that he had access to his parent’s account (which is in their names, not his) and had made deposits into it that exceeded the amount he “loaned” his campaign. He says he’s come to an agreement with the FEC so he can “end the distraction.” Those big, bold-faced lies he told during the WMUR debate? He’s trying to say he “misspoke.”

For 5 long years, Frank Guinta told us that he earned that campaign money; his parents didn’t give it to him and he put it in a bank account he forgot about. He accused Carol Shea-Porter of lying about his finances in a televised debate. He NOW says that he “inadvertently” made a mistake on his FEC forms. He NOW apparently “misspoke” when he accused Carol Shea Porter of lying about his finances.

How can he repay the voters of his district for 5 years of lying? How can he repay the state for stealing an election? How is it possible that NH Republicans are silent about this? Where is his apology to Carol Shea-Porter for those ugly, dishonest accusations he made?

There’s only one way out.  

For Frank Guinta, apology is spelled: R-E-S-I-G-N-A-T-I-O-N.

Frank Guinta "misspeaking" at the WMUR debate:

If you're wondering why the FEC took so long, read this piece from 2013 by Dave Levinthal from the Center for Public Integrity. The FEC has been systematically defunded and cannibalized. When we eliminate the watchdogs we enable the continued demise of our democracy. 

This was originally published as an op-ed in the May 15, 2015 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

Frank Guinta Still Under Investigation by the FEC

Remember this attack ad from October 2014? Frank Guinta claims Carol Shea Porter is LYING about him. He claims he's been cleared by the House Ethics Committee.

Here's the thing - Guinta was never under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. His transgression (the $355,000 magic bank account that funded his first run for Congress) occurred before he was elected. The investigation Frank is trying to deny is being conducted by the Federal Election Commission. (FEC). 

Here he is again, bleating about being a victim, claiming he was exonerated, during a televised debate on WMUR. He accuses Carol of lying. 




Guinta claimed that money was in a bank account he "forgot" about. Hell, who among us hasn't forgotten about over a quarter of a million dollars?

He's refused to explain where the money came from. One would think that he'd be able to produce a bank statement to clear it all up. One would think he'd want to clear this up. One would be wrong.

Guinta's first campaign featured a lot of wailing about alleged abuses by Congresswoman Shea-Porter of the House franking system. Guinta went on to become the largest abuser of that same franking system:  "Also among individual House members, Rep. Frank C. Guinta, R-N.H., spent the most on franked mail in 2011: $164,650."

Frank Guinta seems to believe that the rules don't apply to him. He  may be right - he's certainly not being held accountable. 

He repeatedly stated during his 2014 campaign that he was no longer under investigation. 

As Dean Barker has thoroughly researched, that just isn't true.  The FEC investigation into Franks Funny Money is still pending. It's been pending since 2010.. Surely Guinta could have produced a bank statement by now. 

Frank Guinta repeatedly stated during his 2014 campaign that he was no longer under investigation. 

At a town hall meeting this past week in Dover, he was confronted by constituent Bob Perry. From Fosters:

One testy exchange occurred toward the beginning of the forum when Bob Perry of Strafford asked Guinta about the Federal Elections Commission investigation into his past campaign spending practices. 

Guinta confirmed the investigation is ongoing but dismissed the initial complaint, brought by state Democrats, as political in nature. 

It wasn't Carol Shea-Porter who was lying. Frank Guinta owes Congresswoman Shea-Porter and all the voters of his district a big, big apology. 



Frank Guinta repeatedly stated during his 2014 that he was no longer under investigation. 

Let's Be Frank About Frank's Franking