Did Fiesta Bowl employees violate campaign-finance laws by making contributions to politicians friendly to the bowl?
We still don't know the answer because Fiesta officials did not provide "sufficient information" to an inquiry by the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. The bowl hired former state attorney general Grant Woods to examine the claims, and he turned up "no credible evidence that the bowl's management engaged in any type of illegal or unethical conduct."
State elections director Amy Bjelland told the Arizona Republic that she would begin "independently pursuing leads" in the case.
"Normally people are pretty cooperative on getting us information," Bjelland told the newspaper. "They haven't provided any hard data yet, but we are looking forward to getting something from them. . . . They know who we are talking about because Grant Woods did interviews with current and former employees."
The newspaper last month documented at least $38,000 in campaign contributions from Fiesta Bowl employees to state and federal candidates during the past decade. Employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the newspaper the donations were delivered through lobbyists employed by the bowl.
Fiesta officials also declined the newspaper's requests to examine its bonus records.
$38,000? Jeez, seems like they arn't giving enough. They have a multi million dollar business entity and that's all they are donating to political causes to support there business. Certainly other industries donate considerably more to supportive political causes. Its part of the system.
I don't know if it was your point, but I agree, $38k seems to be a very small number.
Posted by: Anderson | January 27, 2010 at 06:13 AM