Thursday, April 18, 2013

Cuccinelli Financial Report Turns up Questions about Donor

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It seems that soon to be crowned GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli just can't having ethical questions surround him, especially when money is involved - e.g., his long failure to disclose financial holdings in Star Scientific..  His latest financial report reflects an apparently nonexistent radio station as one of his donors.  NBC Decision 12 has details on the question of who actually gave the money to Kookinelli.  Here are highlights:. 

The financial forms are in from the first quarter of 2013 and we are starting to get a sense of who is funding the campaigns of both Ken Cuccinelli and Terry McAuliffe

There are some interesting take aways. McAuliffe has a significant Union presence on his financial disclosure report. This is not a surprise for a Democratic candidate. It is worth noting though because of Virginia's right to work status.

Cuccinelli's donor base was, as expected much different than McAuliffe's. His biggest haul came from the Republican Governor's Association which ponied up $1 million, almost half of his entire report. Cuccinelli also took a $25,000 check from Foster Friess, a major conservative donor during the 2012 presidential campaign. Friess, who was a big supporter of Cuccinelli ally Rick Santorum, drew some heat when we went on cable news and said that in his day pregnancy was prevented when "gals put it (an aspirin) between their knees and it wasn't that costly."

Also in Cuccinelli's report is a $2,500 contribution from a company that calls itself "KHSE LLC". KHSE lists their address as 6915 Wolf Run Shoals Road Fairfax Station, VA. They claim to be a radio station. The trouble is there is no such thing as a radio station called KHSE anywhere in Virginia or Fairfax Station. 

A Google search of KHSE doesn't turn up much either, especially in Virginia. In fact the only KHSE listed as a radio station anywhere on the internet is a Wikipedia entry for a station that doesn't appear to be broadcasting.

According to the Cuccinelli campaign officials, much like the McAuliffe situation, it is a case of an honest mistake. In this situation, the donor provided the correct information and the campaign incorrectly assumed it was a radio station. They submitted their filing information as such.   A spokesperson for the campaign said that KHSE is actually an investment firm not a radio station. They plan to fix the filing.

However, the campaign could not provide any information as to who runs the company. It is also difficult to find any other information about KHSE the investment firm either.  .  .  .  .   Much like our search of State Coroporation Commission Records of KHSE the radio station, nothing turned up in a search for KHSE the investment firm.

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