Billy Long – Someone Stick a Fork in Him

Billy Long (Failing) Candidate for Mo-7 Congressional seat Race  commits second possibly MAJOR blunder.  Billy (auctnr1) Tweeted this yesterday:

“Wrapping big project for Congressional race- my staff does auction/real estate bus[iness], plus Congressional race and they do a GREAT job THANKS !”

See for yourself Click to Embiggen:

 
I am glad he appreciates his staff and all, and I am sure that they are some great folks, but since Mr. Long is apparently not acquainted with the law let me explain  what is wrong here.

Information below taken directly from http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/citizens.shtml 

The law … prohibits contributions from corporations … This prohibition applies to any incorporated organization, profit or nonprofit. For example, the owner of an incorporated "mom and pop" grocery store is not permitted to use a business account to make contributions. …Most people think of contributions as donations of money in the form of checks or currency. … [but] anything of value given to influence a Federal election is considered a contribution…The donation of …--anything of value—[like wages of your own business’s employees you have working on your campaign] is an in-kind contribution…A donation of services is also considered an in-kind contribution…

I am not a lawyer or a Campaign Finance expert by any stretch.   The way I see it, though, is that there is really no way Mr. Long can use his employees from his business to work on his campaign in any sort of paid capacity, and I think it would be very difficult for him to allow them to “volunteer” because the awkward position that would put his employees in.  What if they didn't want to “volunteer” to work on his political campaign?  What would that mean for their regular employment? Someone who is a Lawyer or Campaign Finance expert should look into this. If I am proven wrong, I will be the first one to correct myself, but…

Honestly Folks, at this point I can’t tell these three apart:

 

 

 

-KOOK