CA Dem Operative Embezzles Millions in Campaign $$, Dems Go Back to Donors For More

-By Warner Todd Huston

Imagine if you are a high dollar donor to California Democrats. Imagine you just found out that all the cash you donated was stolen by one of the state party’s top operatives. Well, if you really are a donor, you don’t have to imagine. It is real.

This week Kinde Durkee, a longtime California Democrat operative and campaign treasurer for multiple candidates, was arrested for the “alleged” embezzlement of millions in campaign donations stretching back to the early 1990s.

Now the various campaigns and party offices have found they haven’t the money to continue their operations.

Now imagine you are one of those big donors and you get a little note something like this:

“Dear donor, we sortta lost all the millions you donated due to a silly little misunderstanding in our offices. I know, funny, ain’t it? We are cleaning that mess up as we speak, so no worries. Say, would you be able to donate another mil or two so we can keep doing our Democratie stuff? Thanks, and big kisses, the California Democrats.”

Yeah, exactly. More or less that is really happening. After losing millions due to their criminal incompetence Democrats all over California are going back to donors with hat in hand asking for even more money.

Amusingly, some of Hollywood’s biggest moguls are being asked for more cash for the Democrat cause.

Sony, Disney, News Corp., labor group IATSE and the Motion Picture Assn. of America are among the top donors whose funds have been lost, along with several million dollars in the campaign war chest of California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein (left), according to Opensecrets.org.

Senator Diane Feinstein took a pretty bad hit on this as noted. Her office has reported that she has, “not been able to access information on the $5.2 million raised by her campaign.”

Extremist Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Orange County also lost nearly $400,000.

But, no big deal, eh? Why let’s just have our donors give more, Democrats are saying. That’s what L.A. County Democratic Party chair Eric Bauman has said.

“I can’t say for sure [who will contribute], but we’ve started to reach out to our friends at Warner Bros., Universal and Sony, and donors like that,” he said.

Who needs accountability> They are Democrats, There should be no consequences.

Right?
____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.

For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.


Copyright Publius Forum 2001