Image: Tennessee Registry of Election Finance Board Members – From Top Left: William (Paz) Haynes, III (Senate Democratic Caucus Appointee), Paige Burcham Dennis (Gubernatorial Appointee), Tom Lawless (Senate Republican Caucus Appointee), Henry Fincher (House Democratic Caucus Appointee), Tom Morton (House Republican Caucus Appointee), David Golden (Gubernatorial Appointee) and large photo: incumbent state Senator Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol-District 4)
Image Credit: tn.gov & Antony-22 / CC
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Once again, the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance (TREF) is going after conservative organizations while shielding establishment GOP lawmakers.
At their July meeting, board member Tom Lawless called an investigation of two conservative groups conducted by the Attorney General’s office “not worth the postage they used to send it” and later called Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s reluctance to allocate time and resources to TREF investigations “repugnant and reprehensible.”
He had previously made his unfavorable opinion known regarding the AG’s five-month investigation into whether Sumner County and Tennessee Constitutional Republicans groups had acted as political action committees (PACs).
“I think we need to create and do our own investigation through issuing subpoenas and submitting the questions,” Lawless said early in the TREF meeting. “Let’s get ‘em all in here and let ‘em talk.”
The audio of the meeting was poor in places, possibly due to the Registry Chairman’s microphone not being turned on, but it appears a unanimous vote was taken to have a show cause hearing for the two groups.
Last year, West Duenkel, a Goodlettsville business owner, filed a complaint about the groups with TREF and the Sumner County District Attorney’s office claiming the two groups were acting as unregistered PACs making expenditures to support or oppose two or more candidates for public office or two or more measures in an election involving referendums.
Sumner County Constitutional Republicans Chairman Kurt Riley has denied that the group is a PAC, saying that the complaint “lacks substance” and appears to be politically motivated.
In a letter to a TREF attorney last year, Riley wrote, “I want to clearly state that our group operates as a private club without a formal legal structure. Our existence is based purely on our collective declaration as such.”
The group does not have a bank account and any financial activities are limited to minor petty cash expenses such as purchasing coffee and donuts.
Nevertheless, TREF voted in January to send the matter to Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.
In a recent letter to the registry, the AG’s office had expressed concerns about the investigation and about doing future investigations.
Duenkel, who reviewed the AG’s investigation, agreed with a staff TREF recommendation to set a show cause hearing for the groups despite the AG’s office’s findings.
During his comments, Lawless accused the Attorney General of chasing after “headlines” and that the work of the registry didn’t have enough “sex appeal” for Skrmetti and that he was “a terrible Republican.” He also took issue with an increase in budget that the AG’s office received this year.
The board’s chairman suggested that some of that money be reallocated next year to TREF if the AG’s office continued to “abdicate” responsibility.
TREF also heard from State Representative Robert Stevens (R-Smyrna-District 13) regarding his refiled campaign finance complaint against two local mayors and Tennesseans for Greater Accountability PAC.
Stevens alleges that Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland broke campaign finance laws in 2022 by giving a $7,500 donation to the campaign of Smyrna Mayor Mary Esther Reed in order to get around the law against donating more than $1,600 to one candidate.
Reed has said that she believes the complaint was made out of spite after she pushed out a referendum as a member of the Smyrna Town Council asking if the local General Sessions Court should be eliminated. The judge in that court – Brittany Stevens – is Rep. Stevens’ sister.
Treasurer for the PAC, Mike Terry, told the board that he consulted with TREF’s Jay Moeck, CPA and audit director before writing the checks in question, but Stevens maintains that they broke the “conduit” rule.
After much discussion, the board voted to refer MacFarland’s case to the local District Attorney. More evidence is to be gathered before they make a determination on whether the PACs donations were a “conduit.”
While the board voted to have a show cause hearing for Sumner County Constitutional Republicans, despite the lack of any real evidence, they chose to dismiss a case against incumbent state Senator Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol-District 4) that they deemed to be “factually insufficient.”
Rather than give the complainant an opportunity to clarify the claims, the board voted to dismiss the matter entirely after Lawless suggested that the complaint process could become “weaponized.”
“Running on the theory of weaponization, which is what seems to be happening more and more especially this year, but you flop something out there, it hits the news cycle, and the damage is done,” said Lawless. “To keep it percolating along and giving them another shot at it just seems wrong.”
The board even discussed threatening the complainant with a letter outlining civil penalties for wasting their time but decided against it in the end.
A re-filing of the complaint could still happen if evidence is included to back up specific allegations.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
2 Responses
There will not be any Shields come November!!
If you are waiting for November you are not participating. The time to control this is in PRIMARIES IN AUGUST. Lack of involvement is what got us here.