One of the heavy criticisms leveled at Congressman John Doolittle (R-Roseville) was that he paid his wife 15 percent of all the campaign funds he raised, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past six years. The practice is fairly common, especially with political couples who share a common passion for politics. It is also easily traceable, as campaign disclosure laws make it fairly simple to figure out who is paying their spouse for campaign related services and whether or not those costs are reasonable.
State Senator Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) and his wife, Dianne, would, at first, not seem to have too much in common with the Doolittles. Tom Harman has been active in politics for 12 years. Dianne, not so much. A yoga instructor for many years, Dianne had little experience in politics, other than supporting her husband in his races. Yet, in 2006, Dianne filed to run for her husband’s termed-out Assembly seat as he ran for the State Senate. Most political observers believed Dianne’s run was part of an elaborate attempt to get a quid pro quo out of then-Supervisor Jim Silva who was running to replace then-Assemblyman Tom Harman. The deal: if Supervisor Silva would endorse Tom Harman for Senate, Dianne Harman’s campaign would fold up shop, paving the way for an easy Silva victory. To his credit, Silva said “no deal” and Dianne’s campaign lurched forward, raising $183,000 and pumping $100,000 of personal money into the effort as well.
Dianne Harman lost the Republican primary for the Assembly in the 67th District on June 6, 2006, getting barely above 20 percent of the vote in a three-way race and leaving her campaign with $98,000 of very difficult to liquidate debt (few like to donate to losers to help them erase campaign debt).
Now, here is where it gets interesting.
According to a Los Angeles Times article dated August 27, 2007 (State Ban On Political Pay To Spouses), Senator Tom Harman listed his wife Dianne as having earned up to $100,000 from Coronado Communications in 2006. Coronado Communications is Senator Tom Harman’s campaign consultant. Coronado Communications told the L.A. Times reporter that “…Dianne Harman's work for the firm was for other political candidates, not her husband.” This statement almost eliminates the appearance of impropriety as in the case of Cong. Doolittle since, just as with any citizen, Mrs. Harman can work for whom she chooses. But, the statement does open up some questions, given Mrs. Harman’s complete lack of campaign experience.
For instance, what candidates’ campaigns did she work on from June, after losing the primary, through November 2006? A review of many of Coronado Communications’ candidate clients reveals none who would say they benefited from Mrs. Harman’s assistance.
The L.A. Times reported that Senator Tom Harman paid Coronado Communications $98,000 from his various committees on top of what was probably a 15 percent fee to place ads and produce mail. Of this, $35,000 was in two large payments from Harman’s 2006 election committee while Coronado has been getting a monthly $2,500 retainer.
Did Senator Tom Harman use campaign money from one committee to pay the debt of another, or did he just use his consultant to launder campaign payments to his wife?
Using Tom Harman’s Form 700 financial interest disclosure as a reference, the L.A. Times reported Dianne Harman’s income was as much as $100,000 from Coronado Communications in 2006. What the Times missed was that the Harmans wrote off $98,000 of Dianne Harman’s campaign debt on August 17, 2006. This was the same time the former yoga instructor was said to be working on various campaigns for Coronado Communications. This opens the question: did Senator Tom Harman shift money from his campaign committees to his consultant so his consultant could pay his wife to make good the $98,000 debt from her unsuccessful campaign? Or, has Tom Harman just figured out a way to personally profit from campaign fundraising without having to directly pay his wife from his campaign committee?
These questions beg for a follow-up by Patrick McGreevy, the Times staff writer who initially broke the story on August 27.
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5 comments:
Great, our very own Doolittle in Orange County.
Are you kidding me? This story has no facts. For all you know Ms. Harman recieved only $10,000 for working for Coronado Communications. Are the wives of politicians not allowed to have a jobs. Get a life Josh. You are just pissed that Mike lost.
Or, she made as much as $100,000, according to the Form 700 financial interest statement filed. Even $10,000 is a lot of money for someone with no campaign experience to make in only four months. That's a rate of $30,000 a year. Who did she work for anyway? Coronado Communications told the L.A. Times she worked for candidates. Did Coronado Communications have any Orange County candidates between July and November of 2006? No. At least none who ever saw Mrs. Harman show up to work for them. What did she do, anyway? Just work to pay off the debt they wrote-off?
To the poster on October 15, 2007 11:06 PM: how about the Harmon's releasing their tax records for 2006? Afterall, if Mrs. Harmon made $10,000 for 4 months of work for a few candidates, that's a lot different than $100,000. Still, it was from Sen. Harmon's consultant.
Still, the whiff of scandal does help our side: Doolittle, Lewis, Craig, Harmon... We love it!
I'm more interested in the difference in the stories here. Over at the Buzz in the OC Register, Coronado Communications' spokeshole says they hired Diane Harman to attend parties for over $10,000 while the same spokeshole told the L.A. Times reporter that Diane worked on campaigns. Which reporter did the spokeshole lie to?
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