Questions linger about secret Romney donation
Overshadowed by yesterday’s candidate commentary about the S&P ratings downgrade was Mitt Romney’s dismissal of questions about the propriety of a secret $1 million donation made to a political action committee whose express purpose is to see him elected president next year.
The Republican said all inquiries were rendered moot late Friday when the donor, former Bain Capital executive Edward Conard, stepped forward and identified himself.
“It’s not much of a question anymore,’’ Romney told reporters yesterday during stops in the lead primary state of New Hampshire. “There’s no controversy.’’
Is that so?
The comment recalled the vintage movie scene of actor Leslie Nielsen – in the role of hapless “Naked Gun’’ cop Frank Drebin – telling passersby there’s “nothing to see here, please disperse’’ as all manner of mayhem raged behind him.
Conard didn’t appear to step forward out of some sense of civic duty. He did so – heading into the relatively slow-news period of a weekend – after two campaign finance watchdogs announced earlier Friday they were requesting investigations of his donation by the Federal Election Commission and the US Department of Justice.
The two groups, Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center, say they still want the investigations, underscoring their continued doubts about the nature of the donation.
Paul S. Ryan, associate legal counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, said it could violate a law banning contributions in the name of another person or entity.
The lingering questions include:
*Was it proper for Conard to form a legal entity, W Spann LLC, for the apparent sole purpose of making a veiled donation to Restore Our Future PAC, the pro-Romney group?
As NBC News reported last week, W Spann LLC went on- and off-line faster than an Internet start-up.
*What was the purpose of creating the donor facade when Conard could have legally made the same $1 million donation openly, in his own name?
*Why, if Conard, Restore our Future PAC, and Romney all believe in complying with “the spirit and the letter of the law’’ – as they declared in virtually identical statements recently – would they make, accept, and not decry a donation constructed in a manner to conceal the contributor’s identity?
*Besides questions about the mechanics of the donation, what about the donation itself? Why would someone make a $1 million donation to a political candidate? Is there any way Conard could benefit from making it?
Romney and Conard admittedly know each other.
Conard retired in 2007 from Bain, the venture capital firm Romney co-founded in the 1980s. He previously has given to Romney’s political campaigns in forms that made his identity public.
When Romney was running for governor of Massachusetts, it was the maximum $500 donation to his campaign. While he was governor, it was $14,500 to his Commonwealth PAC during 2004 (two allotments), 2005 , and 2006.
When Romney was running for president in 2008, it was the maximum $2,300 donation (broken into $2,100 and $200 allotments) to his primary campaign. While Romney was plotting his second White House bid, Conard was making $5,000 annual donations to his Free and Strong America PAC in 2008, 2009, and 2010, plus contributions to affiliated state committees that, altogether, total $105,000 since 2008.
This year, he has already made the new maximum 2012 primary contribution, $2,500.
In a statement Friday to Politico, which first reported about the W Spann LLC contribution, Conard revealed his connection to the secret donation to the Restore Our Future PAC.
“I am the individual who formed and funded W Spann LLC. I authorized W Spann LLC’s contribution to Restore Our Future PAC,’’ he said. “I did so after consulting prominent legal counsel regarding the transaction, and based on my understanding that the contribution would comply with applicable laws.’’
Conard said that “to address questions raised by the media concerning the contribution,’’ he was requesting that the committee amend its records to clearly identify him as its donor.
The Restore Our Future PAC is supposed to be independent of the Romney campaign, but Romney himself spoke to some of its supporters last month during his own fund-raising trip to New York City, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
While the PAC can accept unlimited donations from virtually any source but a foreign national, Romney is not allowed to solicit contributions for it that exceed $5,000.
Yesterday, Romney described Conard as a long-time business associate and friend.
“I was hoping he’d make a contribution and confident he would make a contribution,’’ he said.
He did not address the secrecy behind the contribution, but he decried the practice during his 2008 campaign, as noted by an editorial in yesterday’s Washington Post.
The newspaper said today that Romney’s comments in New Hampshire show he still misunderstands the issue.
Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer agrees.
“This contribution was still done in an illegal manner, and you don’t cleanse the violation when you’re about to get caught by saying, ‘I did it,’’’ he said. “Mitt Romney’s dismissive words about what happened here are strange and without merit, from our standpoint.’’
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