Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced that her campaign war chest was “wiped out” by treasurer Kinde Durkee. Ms. Durkee faces federal charges for allegedly plundering hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of dollars from Democratic candidates throughout California.
Oddly enough, Sen. Feinstein does not know how much money Ms. Durkee stole from her. Why not? Because, according to Politico.com:
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.
Seriously? What kind of fool provides a third party with sole, unchecked access to a financial account?
Oh, wait—the same fools responsible for America’s $14.7 trillion national debt.
And if Sen. Feinstein is this irresponsible with her own campaign’s money, then what makes us think she is responsible with ours?
Ryan T. Darby practices law in San Diego. He has yet to find himself locked out of any of his bank accounts.
Comments 8
Democrats have ALWAYS been more gullible in such con jobs. J. David Dominelli’s biggest marks were Democrats. Bernie Madoff’s clientele was overwhelmingly Democrat.
This gullibility helps explain Democrats’ collectiv(ist) inability to grasp the Ponzi scheme nature of social security and government pensions.
BTW, from my many years interacting with local and state government officials, let me concede that there are too many GOP incumbents who also demonstrate a stunning level of fiscal innumeracy. If it were not for the Democrats, too often they’d be the economic illiterates on center stage. But fortunately for them, in this area, Democrats rule!
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63554.html
And it seems nobody is immune from these scandals:
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)
Vice President Joe Biden
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii)
former Rep. Chris Shays (R- Conn)
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R- NJ)
National Republican Congressional Committee
Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.)
Sen Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
Sen Trent Lott (R-Miss)
former Rep. Henry Bonilla (D-Tx)
former Rep. Gary Condit (D-CA)
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
The list is much longer from both sides and corporations are stolen from as well as non-profits too.
Richard,
You may have touched on something here.
http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2011/09/15/kinde-durkees-gop-client-and-efforts/
Posted by Mike Spence at 8:30 am on Sep 15, 2011
“I was talking to renowned slate mail provider Tom Kaptain about the Kinde Durkee scandal(s). Durkee was arrested by the FBI and has looted money from clients she served as campaign treasurer for. Kaptain, a Democrat and We were amazed at the kind of money involved with on a few clients and many more to go. Over a million bucks and counting.
I am sure there have been lots of requests from candidates for bank statements the last week.
I pointed out something odd about her clients. And I don’t mean the Democrat ones. There was actually one Republican and one Independent Expenditure Committee for a Republican she had as clients.”….
It will be interesting to see how this comes out and just why GOP candidates are basically not represented by her. Perhaps they know something about her political proclivities, her political donations, etc.
On the Secretary of State?s website, the public can search
WHICH campaigns various treasurers have served. http://dbsearch.ss.ca.gov/TreasurerSearch.aspx
From January 1, 2009 to July 1, 2011, Kinde Durkee
submitted 242 campaign finance reports for groups or
committees with either the name “DEMOCRAT” or
“DEMOCRATIC” in their formal titles, per the Secretray
of State’s data base.
Durkee submitted exactly TWO (2) reports for a GOP group.
SUMMARIZING THOSE TOTALS FOR YOU
* 242 reports for Democrat groups
* 2 for a single Republican group.
That’s a 121-to-1 ratio for the Mathematically-minded.
There are dozens more Durkee reports filed for various Labor Union-related PACs and prominent Democrat office-holders
like Christin Kehoe, Gil Cedillo, Paul Krekorian, Jose Solorio,
Ted Lieu, Jerome Horton, etc.
Why are the responders here blaming the victims? The criminal here is Durkee not the people she stole from.
Related tweets:
From: @sandiegorostra
Sent: Sep 16, 2011 8:24a
To: @sdutOsborne But, DiFi aside, all this brings up an interesting issue: Gov’t and often business have internal controls. Campaigns seldom do.
From: @barryjantz
Sent: Sep 16, 2011 9:22a
To: @sandiegorostra @sdutOsborne As a former treasurer, I agree — Rep, Dem or other. Biz, Gov audits require checks/balances. Campaigns seldom.
Actually Jim, the gullibility factor of the victims is an issue. After all, these “victims” have the gall to tell us they know best how to run OUR lives and spend OUR money.
Anyone can be fooled, but the gullible are more vulnerable — demonstrating their unsuitability to be our leaders/parents/bosses/jailors.
I’m a skeptic, and over time that’s served me well in such matters. I spotted the J. David Dominelli Ponzi scheme after a client brought me the deal to review. I actually wrote a letter to the SD County DA TWICE suggesting that all circumstantial evidence pointed to him being a con man.
I was ignored — perhaps because at that time Dominelli was giving money like mad to worthy (well, high profile) San Diego charities. Can’t say for sure why my letters were so easily dismissed.
I saved three clients from investing with him, but that’s all I could do. Over a year later the scheme collapsed, as all Ponzi schemes do eventually.
BTW — Best San Diego Democrat in recent memory? Donna Frye. She had the good sense to be skeptical and ask questions. Most local elected officials don’t — from EITHER party.
Richard:
Thanks you for the excellent analysis.
The best SD Democrat I recall is Mayor Frank Curran
(1963-1971). When the Chargers arrived in 1961
they played in the old Balboa Stadium.
Mayor Curran insisted that if there was to be a new
football stadium it MUST go on the ballot first, and
it MUST get a 2/3 vote of approval as well !
Then Frank Curran went out and campaigned for the
“San Diego Stadium” of Mission Valley, appearing
in person at dozens of public events and answering
every question about the finances until attendees
had run out of things to ask him.
Satisified, San Diegans then approved the Stadium
with a 71% landslide YES majority. That Stadium
is still there, home to the Aztecs and Chargers a
half century later.
The Stadium, and the enormous RESPECT Frank
Curran had for his fellow San Diegans, stand as his
lasting monument.
God Bless You, Frank Curran … and THANK YOU !