Decatur Daily: Financial Ties that bind

Date
3 local campaigns received funds from Speaker Hubbard, paid thousands to companies he owns
 
"At a minimum, it creates an appearance that this is all just money being laundered through a candidate and back to enrich the originator of the funds," said Meredith McGehee, policy director of The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan campaign-finance organization based in Washington, D.C. "These transactions sound so incestuous. The candidates should have been aware of the appearance this would create, even if there was not an understanding that, ‘I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine.' " ...

McGehee said the transactions between Hubbard's companies and candidates damage the system.

"For people to say it's ‘just politics' ignores the damage it does to the process," McGehee said. "The appearance of self-enrichment makes people cynical about politicians and about the democratic process."


To read the full article in Decatur Daily, click here.