TailOverTeaKettle.com

The Georgia Republican Party was swinging today at Mark Taylor, the Democratic candidate for governor. According to the GOP Press Release (Ethics Complaint Filed Against Mark Taylor):

According to Taylor’s financial disclosure, eight different Carl Gregory car dealerships contributed $5000 each to his campaign. All eight of these $5000 contributions were received on the exact same day, demonstrating clearly that Carl Gregory bundled these checks and intended to make a single donation of $40,000.

Under State Ethics Commission rule 189-6-.03, donations from affiliated corporations are treated as a sum rather than individually. That means all of Carl Gregory’s business are limited to giving the Taylor’s primary campaign $5000 combined, not $5000 each.

While it at least looks on the surface that Taylor’s campaign made a mistake in accepting the contributions, it is a mistake that’s easily corrected, and obviously was not some premeditated scheme and serious ethics breach. They even reported all of them on their campaign finance disclosure statements.

Why is it, however, that such careless mistakes are made by these campaigns? It just provides grist for the mill and unwelcome distractions.