Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

You can rest easier knowing that these are some of the same people who have assured America they’ve created an ironclad system to responsibly safeguard trillions of taxpayer dollars.

From Fox News:

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is the latest lawmaker claiming to have been looted of campaign cash by a Democratic treasurer who’s been likened to Bernie Madoff.

Feinstein’s campaign, which had a cash balance of $5 million on June 30, believes it suffered losses but does not know how extensive they were, according to campaign adviser Bill Carrick.

The campaign is blaming Kinde Durkee, who managed the senator’s finances for years along with the accounts of several other top California politicians. Durkee was arrested and hit with fraud charges earlier this month. U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., told her contributors in a letter released Monday that her campaign was robbed of about $250,000.

Feinstein’s office said the senator was “wiped out” along with the other lawmakers, according to the Los Angeles Times.
[...]
Durkee had authority over more than 400 bank accounts, including political campaigns, according to the federal complaint filed earlier this month.

Would it lessen the impact for the “victims” if they knew Durkee might have turned around and donated at least some of the money right back to Democrats?

More:

[Rep. Susan] Davis is missing more than $250,000 from her reelection committee. Loretta Sanchez has already declared her $379,000 campaign war chest was “nearly wiped out” by Kindee. The Los Angeles County Democratic Party reported that it lost at least $200,000, while California Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D) may be out as much as $677,000.

And dozens of other campaign committees have yet to declare whether they suffered losses as well.

As of right now Feinstein is unable to determine how much money fell prey to the campaign treasurer’s alleged self-imposed stimulus:

Feinstein said she and her campaign staff have been unable to access all their bank records at this point because Durkee alone controlled access to the account, which has made it difficult for them to assess how much money is gone.

Does this seem like the type of person to whom you’d give 100 percent control of your accounts?

Over the last decade Durkee had racked up $185,860 in fines from the Fair Political Practices Commission in eight different cases, a sum that FPPC Chairwoman Ann Ravel said points to “quite serious” issues.

Durkee was released on a $200,000 bond, a process that took eight hours because of the time required to endorse over to the court 2,500 checks made out to the “2012 Feinstein Victory Fund” (just kidding… I think).

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe