HD 46: Is Dawnna Dukes Paying Personal Debt Off With Campaign Funds?

Back in December, Texas weekly had a story about Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin) and some questionable campaign finance reports and expenditures.  KVUE’s Elise Hu supsequently picked up on that story as well. The Austin-American Statesman also gave the issue extensive coverage.

Digging deeper into Dukes‘ Texas Ethics Commission filings, however, it actually looks like she may be paying the interest on her personal debts or credit cards with her campaign accounts.  At the very least, Dukes is violating Texas law by failing to disclose the vendor of her credit card payments.

Here is a spreadsheet of Dukes‘ reported expenses to Bank of America since 2000. The most blatant ethics violation here is that Dukes never actually discloses the real vendor for the expense (naming the credit card company doesn’t count, as we learned from the saga of State Rep. John Davis).  Descriptions for credit card expenses such as “gas” and “meals” is not sufficient for the Texas Ethics Commission.

Analyzing Dukes’ reported expenses, she has a series of expenses that are basically the same amount over and over although the purpose of the expense differs.

For example, on ten separate occasions, Dukes lists a Bank of America expense for exactly $100, although the reported purpose of the expense varies wildly. How can it be a mere coincidence that a lot of “staff meals” cost exactly $100?
And, on 17 different occasions, Dukes‘ reports show a Bank of America expense for exactly $200. Again, the reported purpose of the expenses varies wildly.

If a bunch of different expenditures from “meals” to “flowers” costing exactly $100 and $200 isn’t strange enough, Dukes’ “staff holiday party” evidently cost her campaign exactly $1,000, if you believe her ethics reports. If that was really her budget for the party, I can’t imagine what a fun time the staffer sitting at the table with a calculator configuring sales taxes and gratuity and then telling people, “you can’t order that! it won’t equal $1,000!” had at that party.

To say the least, it stretches credibility (to go farther, it’s just unbelievable) that everything from “meals” to “flowers” to “stage rental” to “gas” and a “Thanksgiving Reception” all cost the exact same dollar amount.

Although Dukes’ campaign reports more than $89,000 spent on 19 different credit cards (seriously, who has 19 credit cards?), more than $10,700 of that has gone to her Bank of America card.

The troubling part of this is that if you look at her financial disclosure forms from 2000 through 2007 (many can be found at the Center for Public Integrity (and here)), Dukes notes that she has more than $25,000 in personal debt. Now, everybody’s got debt (nothing wrong with that), but guess who Dawnna Dukes‘ debt is with?

If you guessed Bank of America (by her own admission!) you are smarter than a fifth grader.

So, to recap: we have a series of payments in the exact, round amounts of $100 and $200 for very different items are going to the same entity. Dukes happens to have a $25,000 or more personal liability with that same entity.
Does that seem a little odd to you?

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