less than a month ago, the piyush scam was caught and then admonished for using louisiana state university and the university of louisiana at lafayette's colors and logo's. now the piyush scam has been caught using fuzzy bookkeeping regarding his campaign finance reports, leaving us wondering what's going to come out next...
the baton rouge morning advocate explains:By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
Advocate Capitol News Bureau
Published: Sep 7, 2007 - Page: 1A
U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal is planning to amend his most-recent campaign finance report for the governor’s race in response to an ethics complaint.
The Kenner Republican, who is making ethics a cornerstone of his campaign, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
His spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers, said Thursday that Jindal campaign officials do not believe they violated state campaign disclosure laws.
“We will file an amendment out of an abundance of caution,” she said.
Another gubernatorial candidate, state Sen. Walter Boasso, also is the subject of an ethics complaint.
Republican Party of Louisiana State Central Committee member Scott Wilfong of Baton Rouge contends Boasso, D-Arabi, failed to detail which media outlets received money to air his TV commercials.
Wilfong confirmed that he filed the complaint Thursday but refused to comment further on it. He said state ethics officials told him not to talk about it.
Boasso did not respond to a request for comment.
Boasso’s campaign spokesman Brian Welsh said the campaign has reported and disclosed “every penny.”
The election is Oct. 20.
The complaint on Jindal claimed he should have reported $118,264.76 in mailers that the Louisiana Republican Party did on his behalf. The party listed the expenditures in its own campaign finance report.
Republican Party chairman Roger Villere said he is not sure Jindal knew about the mailers.
“If someone’s looking on his, that’s the wrong thing. He wouldn’t be responsible for reporting something we did,” Villere said.
The state’s acting ethics administrator, Kathleen Allen, said she could not confirm that complaints have been filed against Jindal or Boasso.
Complaints are confidential unless a violation is found, she said.
Speaking generally, Allen said a candidate might have to report direct mailers paid for by a political party if he or she helped coordinate the content.
New Orleans public high schoolteacher Chris Stow-Serge said he filed the complaint against Jindal after combing through the finance reports with friends.
Stow-Serge said he is not supporting any particular gubernatorial candidate. He said he was active with the College Democrats at Tulane University.
Stow-Serge said he has never before filed an ethics complaint.
He said he hopes Jindal is called out for the “hypocrisy of running a campaign about ethics.”
