Kaine’s acceptance of gifts in Virginia could create opening for Republicans

[pnwmom]

8. Funny the parts you left out.

Last edited Sun Jul 24, 2016, 05:41 AM - Edit history (2)

Like how Murray, the person who allowed him the use of the vacation home, said its value for the week was far lower than what Kaine reported -- and that Murray never had any state business.

How all of Kaine's gifts were scrupulously reported -- including gifts that fell below the reporting limit.

How most of Kaine's "gifts" came in the form of travel to work related events. For example, when the Obama campaign reimbursed him for his travel costs to their events, he reported it as personal gifts. He also reported state funds reimbursing him for travel as personal gifts.

Basically, because Virginia law allowed almost any gifts -- as long as they were reported -- there was no downside to reporting anything that could possibly be considered a gift -- including state reimbursements for travel. So, when in doubt, or when it wasn't clear how best to report any transfer, he reported it as a gift.

The subsequent Republican Governor, who took money, personal gifts, and loans from business connections -- and failed to report it -- just had his conviction overturned by the Supreme Court, 8 to 0 -- because the State failed to show that the Governor had done any favors in exchange for the gifts. So going after Kaine for carefully following all the Virginia rules and over-reporting gifts is the ultimate in hypocrisy for the Republicans. But that's nothing new.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kaines-acceptance-of-gifts-in-state-office-could-offer-republicans-an-opening/2016/07/22/8508b2cc-4f7f-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

“During his eight years as lieutenant governor and governor, Senator Kaine went beyond the requirements of Virginia law, promptly disclosing any and all gifts received, including those beneath the reporting threshold,” said Kaine spokeswoman Amy Dudley. “All disclosure information — the vast majority of which was for work-related travel expenses rather than gifts — has been publicly available for years and never once raised any concerns of impropriety.”

During his eight years as Virginia’s lieutenant governor and then governor, Kaine disclosed that he accepted $201,600 in personal gifts, according to data compiled from the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan tracker of money in state politics.

The majority of those gifts came in the form of air travel, including from the 2008 campaign of President Obama, which paid to fly Kaine across the country as a campaign surrogate. Under murky Virginia law, the proper way to disclose such political travel has been unclear; other politicians have disclosed it as a campaign contribution to their political action committee, rather than a personal gift, as did Kaine.

More than $32,000 of Kaine’s gifts were travel expenses paid by the state’s economic development agency during trade missions he took in his official role as governor.

Here is another article about all this:

http://www.vox.com/2016/7/23/12260394/tim-kaine-scandal-gifts