Utah Watchdog Group Files Criminal Complaint, Mia Love Latest Member of Congress to Be Swept Up in Corruption Scandal
Congresswoman Mia Love just can’t shake the campaign finance scandal that’s engulfing her campaign. After CNN reported last week uncovered that Mia Love had gamed Utah’s campaign finance rules to illegally raise over $1 million illegally towards her neck-in-neck re-election bid against Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, a Utah watchdog group this week filed a criminal complaint with the Department of Justice.
Don’t forget – this isn’t the first time that Mia Love has run afoul of ethics laws. In 2015, she was forced to pay back taxpayers after she spent their money to fly to DC for the Washington Correspondents Dinner, and that was only after she was caught lying about it to Utah voters. Later that year, she had to pay back taxpayers again after getting caught pocketing a reimbursement for a flight she never took. But even before she was in Congress, Mia Love believed the rules didn’t apply to her – she was caught using her mayoral email account for campaign purposes. And last year, she was caught again, potentially using taxpayer dollars to fly to a campaign fundraiser at Disney World.
And just yesterday, Mia Love’s attack ad on Ben was taken down from a Salt Lake City station after her campaign stole images of two Ben McAdams supporters from an ad that they did in support of McAdams two years ago. The 87-year old couple sent a notice to television stations in Salt Lake that the wrongful use of their image breaks state law. This, in addition to a fact check of the ad that found two falsehoods being peddled against Ben.
Here’s what folks are saying about the latest chapter in the unfolding scandal and ad:
New York Times: Utah Group Files Complaint Against Mia Love Over Fund-Raising
A progressive group in Utah that advocates government transparency and accountability filed a federal complaint against Representative Mia Love, a Republican, on Tuesday over alleged campaign finance violations, escalating the liberal fight against the vulnerable incumbent just seven weeks before November’s midterm elections.
Alliance for a Better Utah, a progressive nonprofit, filed the complaint with the Federal Election Commission and sent a detailed letter to the commission’s general counsel and the chief of the public integrity section at the Department of Justice’s criminal division. The letter, which comes after the commission forced Ms. Love to acknowledge that some of her primary funds had been improperly raised, argues that Ms. Love’s “actions are a betrayal of the public trust and of Utah voters,” and “should be subject to criminal penalties.”
[…]
The crux of the allegation against Ms. Love stems from more than $1 million she raised leading up to her re-election campaign this year. Ms. Love did not face a primary challenger because of Utah’s convention nomination rules, but, according to the commission, she raised the money during the primary challenge period, and an additional $372,468 even after she secured the state nomination and knew a primary would not take place.
Chase Thomas, the executive director of Alliance for a Better Utah, said Ms. Love should pay back the full sum. Mr. Thomas said filing a complaint was also meant to speed up the investigative process on the matter.
“Her response was completely inadequate,” he said.
His organization became known around 2013 when a similar campaign finance complaint against state Attorney General John Swallow helped lead to Mr. Swallow’s resignation and eventual arrest (Mr. Swallow was eventually acquitted of all charges).
“Mia Love has been at this for a while — she’s gone through multiple campaigns, and she knows what campaign finance laws are out there,” Mr. Thomas said. “There’s a possibility that this was done willfully and knowingly.”
Ms. Love, a former mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, first ran for Congress in 2012, and lost. She won two years later, and was re-elected in 2016. Ms. Love is also the first black female Republican ever elected to Congress.
[…]
But the looming investigation could have political consequences for Ms. Love, who is facing a difficult re-election campaign this year. Her Democratic opponent, Ben McAdams has made “fixing a broken congress” one of his top campaign issues, and the Cook Political Report has rated the race as “Lean Republican” instead of “Likely Republican.”
[…]
FOX13: Watchdog group submits complaint against Love regarding campaign funds
A watchdog group called “Alliance for a Better Utah” submitted a formal complaint to the Federal Election Commission Wednesday accusing Utah congresswoman Mia Love of collecting campaign funds illegally.
In a press release, the group said Love continued to collect over $500,000 in campaign contributions for a “2018 Republican primary election that never happened.”
According to the Federal Election Commission, the group said, campaign contributions that are not designated for a general election within 60 days must be returned to the contributors. Alliance for a Better Utah alleges that Love knew in March she wouldn’t be in the 2018 Republican primary election — she was the only Republican nominee, and therefore wouldn’t have to go through a primary election — and continued to collect campaign contributions anyway.
The FEC sent Love a letter in August saying the Utah Republican’s campaign had violated federal guidelines about money for primaries. Love’s campaign responded and said it would refund and re-designate some, but not all, of the money raised. The Love campaign refunded $10,000 and re-designated $370,000 — roughly two-thirds of contributions — but Better Utah said this is “completely inadequate under the requirements of the law.”
“Any way you look at it, Representative Love broke the rules and got a $1.1M advantage,” said Chase Thomas, executive director of Better Utah. “Whether because of a flagrant disregard for the rules, or massive ineptitude, the fact remains that Love has improperly received and retained a staggering amount of money, which her campaign is brushing off as though the rules don’t apply to her. Love is in clear violation and has no choice but to return the improperly collected funds.”
Love’s campaign further defended their actions, saying they made mistake that was blown out of proportion. Her campaign also released a two-page document refuting any claims of illegal action. The document references a case involving Sen. Mike Lee in 2016. Lee also raised campaign funds in preparation for a primary election that didn’t end up happening. In Lee’s case, the FEC ruled that a federal candidate is allowed to retain these contributions.
The Better Utah group said that knowingly collecting and retaining campaign contributions outside of the 60 days Love’s campaign had to designate contributions for a primary election is a possible criminal violation of Federal Election Commission rules. The group added that this type of violation is inexcusable for Love, who is not new to the election game — this is her fourth federal campaign.
“Love certainly understands how this works by now,” Thomas said. “These laws are not recommendations. Willfully and knowingly collecting funds in violation of this law is not only unethical, but is likely a criminal violation.”
Read the full complaint from Alliance for a Better Utah here.
Deseret News: Utah group files FEC complaint against Rep. Mia Love over campaign contributions
A complaint against Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, has been filed with the Federal Election Commission by a progressive Utah nonprofit claiming the congresswoman accepted more than $1.1 million in illegal campaign contributions.
Love’s campaign denied any wrongdoing Wednesday and called the complaint an effort to “smear” the congresswoman.
The Alliance for a Better Utah, which calls itself a good government group, said in a detailed letter to the FEC and the Department of Justice’s criminal division that Love’s “actions are a betrayal of the public trust of Utah voters.”
At issue is money raised by Love for the June primary election, since she had no opposition and was nominated as the Republican Party’s general election candidate by delegates to the party’s state convention in April.
The alliance’s letter said the issue should be “investigated immediately to determine the extent of the violation,” then the campaign should be compelled to return money that shouldn’t have been accepted.
The letter also calls for the campaign to be fined the maximum amount permissible and asks that “any knowing and willful violations” be referred to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution.
“Any way you look at it, Rep. Love broke the rules and got a $1.1 million advantage,” said the alliance’s executive director, Chase Thomas, who signed the letter.
“Whether because of flagrant disregard for the rules, or massive ineptitude, the fact remains that Love has improperly received and retained a staggering amount of money, which her campaign is brushing off as though the rules don’t apply to her,” Thomas said.
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The Hill: Utah group complains Mia Love should face criminal penalties for improper fundraising
A progressive nonprofit group in Utah has filed a federal complaint against Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) over what the group says are campaign finance violations, according to The New York Times.
Alliance for a Better Utah, which advocates for transparency and accountability in government, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission and wrote a letter to the commission’s general counsel and the chief of the public integrity section in the Department of Justice’s criminal division, the Times reported.
The Times reported that the group’s allegation against Love stems from more than $1 million she raised during the primary period despite not facing a primary challenger.
The group wrote in its letter that Love’s “actions are a betrayal of the public trust and of Utah voters,” and “should be subject to criminal penalties,” according to the Times.
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Fox 13: The tax tiff truth test in Love’s and McAdams’ District 4 ads
“V/O: ‘McAdams repeatedly supported higher taxes.’ Reporter: ‘That’s a big claim, and you see all of those articles cited at the bottom? Two of the articles are about renewing the zoo, arts, and parks tax already in place. … That’s not a hike – fiction.’ … Reporter: ‘Another article is about McAdams’ predecessor, Peter Carroon, hiking taxes on his way out the door. McAdams was very careful to not take a stance, so Love’s claim here is fiction.’” [0:15-0:52]
Salt Lake Tribune: Some people in new Mia Love attack ad say their images were ‘stolen’ from old ad they did in support of Ben McAdams. They demand it stop airing.
Don and Marilyn Remington, both 87, were astonished to see themselves on a TV ad for GOP Rep. Mia Love — and say her campaign “stole” their images from an ad they did two years ago for her opponent, Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams.
“I just laughed the first time I saw it,” Marilyn says. “But after the second, third, fourth and fifth times — and the tenth — it got old.”
So a lawyer for the Remingtons sent a letter to the Love campaign on Thursday demanding that their images be removed from the ad, contending that it breaks state law. The letter also went to local TV stations demanding that they stop airing it.
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Tom Love — no relation to Mia — the president of Love Communications, said Mia Love’s campaign “misappropriated images from an ad we shot for McAdams two years ago without permission” and used it in the short opening shots for her new ad.
Tom Love said he produced the ad for an earlier mayoral campaign by using friends and family — including the Remingtons — for the group shots.
A letter from the Remingtons’ attorney, Perrin Love of the Clyde Snow & Sessions law firm, said the Remingtons gave McAdams written permission two years ago to use their images. “They have not granted and expressly do not grant Friends of Mia Love/Mia Love 4 Utah campaign permission to use their likenesses.”
He wrote that using their images without permission violates the Utah Abuse of Personal Identity Act.
“Your use of their likenesses, taken from the McAdams campaign advertisement, is not incidental, and falsely implies that the Remingtons want to get off the Ben Bus and do not support Ben McAdams for Congress,” he wrote.
Don Remington said, “That was a pretty gutsy move to use our pictures without permission.”
Marilyn Remington added, “I would never vote for Love. I support McAdams because he is honest.”