Over a year after questions first rose about Congressman Spano’s illegal campaign funding, Spano still refuses to divulge key facts about his conduct. On point after point, Spano has failed to provide satisfactory answers to Floridians about important legal questions surrounding his donations.
Perhaps Spano thinks he can continue to avoid or dodge these questions all the way through election day or maybe he’s hoping if he hides from these questions they’ll eventually just disappear. But with at least three separate federal investigations into his conduct, that seems unlikely.
Per the Tampa Bay Times, here are just some areas where Spano has blocked all efforts for transparency:
- Spano has said he was advised by consultants that it was legal to borrow $180,000 from friends and lend the proceeds to his campaign. But he has refused to say which consultants told him that. His then-treasurer, Jamie Jodoin, has denied she did; campaign finance experts say anyone with basic knowledge would know it was illegal.
- Spano has said repeatedly that he reported the problems himself as soon as he learned of them, including telling WTSP-Ch. 10 he reported it “before it became public knowledge.” He said that shows he was acting in good faith and thought his actions were legal. But Spano reported the loans in a letter to the FEC dated Nov. 30, 2018. That was nearly a month after the Tampa Bay Times reported on Nov. 5, 2018 — the day before the election — that the loans from friends “appear to be the source” of his loans to his campaign, and likely were illegal. Three days earlier, Spano had declined in an interview with the Times to say where he got the money.
- Spano’s campaign finance reports continue until today to say the money came from “personal funds of the candidate.” If it came from loans from friends, that’s false, said campaign finance law expert Mark Herron.
- Spano announced in January 2019 that he repaid his friends’ loans by getting a personal bank loan. But under campaign finance law, the loans from his friends are considered illegal campaign contributions and should have been refunded by the campaign — not the candidate — as soon as it learned of them. Not all bank loans meet legal requirements for campaigns, and a campaign that receives one must report the terms. The Spano campaign has never reported refunding the contributions, but it has partially repaid Spano for his loans to the campaign
- In the WTSP-Ch. 10 interview, Spano said there are “documents (that) aren’t publicly available, but … show that all the things I’m saying in good faith are actually true.” The FEC and Justice Department won’t release information about pending investigations, but there’s no reason Spano couldn’t release any documents in his possession, said Herron.
Given Spano’s legal troubles and Q4 filings that show both of his Democratic challengers entered election year with more cash on hand than Spano, it’s no wonder that Inside Elections shifted this race into a more competitive column just last week.
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