Last year, the GALEO gang filed a comnplaint against me with the Georgia ethics commission on my lobbying at the Georgia Capitol and in Washington: it was dismissed last week. Posted below is a short news stoy from Insider advantage Georgia on the hearing. We are grateful to Mr. Dick Pettys for permission to re post. Insider Advantage is a subscription Website. HERE

Ethics Commission Postpones Decision On Whether Oxendine Received Illegal Contributions

(10/16/09) The State Ethics Commission has postponed a decision on whether Insurance Commissioner (and Republican gubernatorial candidate) John Oxendine’s campagn received illegal contributions.

On a 3-0 vote Thursday, the panel tabled the complaint until it receives responses from two west Georgia insurance companies and 10 Alabama-based political action committees.

The PACs contributed $120,000 to Oxendine’s gubernatorial campaign that came from the two insurers, which otherwise would have been proibited from contributing to elected officials who regulate their industry.

Oxendine returned the contributions last summer after the complaint was filed.

The commission dismissed a second complaint against Oxendine over the campaign’s purchase and use of a $37,000 campaign vehicle.

Tim Echols, the campaign manager, said the campaign was pleased with the dismissal of that charge and was confident the other would be dismissed “once the commission gets the information it seeks from other parties.”

He added, “Georgians are sick and tired of the negative attacks on John Oxendine. Every week one of John Oxendine’s opponents attempts a negative attack.”

In some other key decisions, the commission:

“…In some other key decisions, the commission:

* Dismissed a complaint against Derrick Dickey contending that the former Perdue staffer should have registered as a lobbyist when he was hired as a communications specialist to help promote so-called private cities legislation. Dickey since has registered as a lobbyist.

* Dismissed a complaint filed against anti-illegal immigration activist D.A. King by former state Sen. Sam Zamarripa. The complaint alleged that King had lobbied without registering during the 2006 and 2007 session.

King acknowledged that he did not register as a lobbyist until 2008, but added he had been speaking out earlier as a private citizen on the immigration issue. He also contended he had spent mostly his own money on his lobbying efforts. ( Note from D.A.- more on the dismissal and Sam and Jerry’s resulting unhappiness from the Spanish language “newspaper” translated from Babelfish HERE )

* Dismissed a complaint King filed against an attorney for the Mexican-American Legal and Education Fund for lobbying, allegedly without publicly displaying her lobbyist badge.

* Levied fines against Sen. Lester Jackson and former Sen. Regina Thomas for failing to file complete details on their finances. Both settled the complaints with plea agreements.

Thomas, a former Democratic senator, agreed to pay a $2,500 civil penalty from her personal funds, not unspent campaign funds. She admitted she failed to file a statement of her personal finances within the deadline after qualifying for re-election in 2005 and for not filing one at all the next year, even though it was required.

Jackson succeeded Thomas when she retired from the Senate to mount an unsuccessful run for Congress against John Barrow. Jackson admitted that he failed to file reports in June and December of last year related to his campaign as a member of the state House, which were required even though he was running for the state Senate.

He paid the $475 in late fees in February, but another $150 in late fees has accumulated since.

In the agreement the commission accepted Thursday, Jackson agrees to pay the new late fees and a $250 civil penalty from personal funds, not from his campaign.”

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