Co-mingled campaign funds?
Newly minted Congressional candidate Greg Ball, a Republican from Patterson, has a campaign fundraising conundrum.
He is soliciting contributions for his challenge to U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, on the same website he has used to raise money for his state Assembly campaign.
A click on contributions at Ball’s ball4ny website, which bears the slogan “Your Voice in Albany,” turns up
Reference: Greg Ball for Congress (Ball4NY)
Campaign finance laws for federal and New York State candidates differ significantly and accounts must remain separate.
Ball did not return a call for comment.
As of this afternoon, there is still no mention of Ball’s candidacy on the Federal Election Commission website nor any filing concerning fundraising for the exploratory committee he formed.
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Typical Assemblyman Ball, he believes he is above the laws and the rules.
This is a total non-issue and the Urinal News knows it.
So is there any proof that the accounts or the same? Or just the web URL.
A quick search of the FEC’s website turns up “Ball4NY” in New York’s 19th district.
This sounds like a hit job to me.
Anybody wondering with the Journal Snooze circulation is in the toilet, look no further.
This is standard Susan Elan creating an issue from nothing.
First: Assemblyman Ball by FEC regulations and laws has 15 days to file as an official candidate for United States Congress.
Second: Everyone knows Ball has had an exploratory committee with a separate name and account number for months.
Third: Assemblyman Ball is announced candidate for U.S. Congress and is therefore raising money to run for U.S. Congress not the NY Assembly, that is the legal inference.
This has nothing to do with the FEC.
The website http://www.ball4ny.com is paid for by his Assembly campaign account. (Corporate money)
If you click on ‘contribute’ it takes money for “Greg Ball for Congress”. (A federal account)
He is illegally co-mingling campaign accounts. Good catch journal news. Maybe Greg is too cheap to create a Congressional Campaign website or maybe he just does not care about the law.
Wrong DJ, as long as the usage of the website is seen as a contribution from the BALL4NY Assembly Campaign to the BALL4NY Congressional campaign on the originating filing than Ball will be in complete compliance with regards to this obvious matter.
Here is the real fraud, Assemblyman Ball is raising money under the premise that he is running for Congress. He will be able to raise more money outside of his district, then he will decide not to run for Congress and have substanial money to run more SOS type campaigns. Mark my words, this is more of the same from Mr. Ball. Everyone will be had by Mr. Ball again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
greg is missing the kind of senior advisor that understands
the implications of this kind of mixing which is no
doubt unintentional but which brings scrutiny by virtue
of the fact that it could easily have been avoided.
the problem with younger consultants is that they
are so anxious to achieve a result that they do not
consider the repercussions of making a hasty decisions
That would be fine Citizen IF it was legal. But it is not.
Federal campaigns can only accept money from individuals or from federally registered political action committees. Ball’s Assembly account takes corporate money and therefore cannot give to Ball’s Congressional account. (Anyway, it is also not a federally registered PAC)
Look … it is an amateurish mistake. He should have opened up a Congressional account and a Congressional campaign website. Him or his campaign advisers were lazy and now they got caught. What he does next will tell a lot about him as a candidate. If he continues to co-mingle funds then he is deliberately breaking the law.
Ball buys ads. The Journal News covers him.
Doesn’t anyone see this story for what it really is?
It’s about steering people to Ball’s website so they can click the ‘contribute’ link.
A lot of us don’t like him, but for the 70% of people that voted for him the past two go-rounds, this is like free publicity for this guy and how to contribute!!!
Ball probably gave them the story himself just because it was a slow newsday!
Mark my words, Ball and the Journal News are in league!
I see the consultant is looking for a new client.
Outraged Citizen, you are wrong and DJ is correct. Federal Election Law is VERY clear that no corporate money can be used in Federal campaigns. That means Ball’s Assembly Campaign Account is off limits in his Congressional run as it is tainted with corporate money.
I don’t expect Ball to comply with the Federal laws as he never complied with State laws. Only difference is the Feds pay attention and will call him on his illegalities whereas the State could care less.
the consultant is certainly no mike duhaime in that the consultant aka mike edelman has actually won races. and much more competitive races than duhaime, mahoney, et al. have ever been involved with.
the gop used to win almost all judicial races in westchester until they made the foolhardy decision under rose panio’s ‘reign’ to remove mike edelman as the consultant. i don’t think the gop has won a race since.
and electing a republican as da in an overwhelmingly democratic county is certainly no small feat. even tom doherty and all the king’s (pataki) men couldn’t do the same thing in the same year in the same county with the same lines.
the list goes on and on. edelman’s record of success speaks for itself. same goes for the others’ record of failure.
frankly, ball would be wise to deal with edelman.
but one would hope edelman would be wise enough not to deal with ball.
Here is the real problem for Assemblyman Greg Ball, when the National Democratic Committee begins there detailed investigation of him and his background, they will reveal much of the information that local’s could not over the last few years. Assemblyman Greg Ball’s past will catch up to him sooner then later, this is the big leagues. Congressman Hall is part of the Majority that runs Washington today; the Democrats control the Presidency, The Senate and The Congress. Do you think they are going to sit back and allow a snot nosed kid to win this seat?
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.
GREG BALL HAS A LONG HISTORY WITH SHADY LOANS, MISSING CAMPAIGN FILINGS AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN TRANSFERS.
JUST ONE STORY FROM THE ARCHIVES BELOW, MORE TO FOLLOW.
********
February 13, 2007 at 4:53 pm by Elizabeth Benjamin
Freshman Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Carmel, who won significant attention for denouncing his fellow legislators as “dysfunctional” on the Assembly floor during last week’s state comptroller vote, has run afoul of state Elections Law by failing to file a financial report on Jan. 15 for his campaign committee, New Yorkers on the Ball.
State Board of Elections spokesman Lee Daghlian confirmed that Ball’s name is on a list of some 500 delinquent filers against whom the board plans to seek civil judgments in court tomorrow.
Daghlian said he was aware of no other state-level elected officials whose names are on that list.
The the pols don’t fulfill their responsibility to file a financial statement, they can be charged a fine of up to $500 plus interest and the board’s court costs.
Any person who “willingly and knowingly violates the filing provisions or contributions may be guilty of a misdemeanor,” according to the BoE’s Web site.
Ball’s last filing, made 27 days after the 2006 general election, showed he had $2,233 on hand and $11,898 worth of debt, $5,286 of which he owed to himself after he apparently paid for radio ads and campaign mailers out of his own pocket.
Ball has so far not returned a call for comment.
A MUST READ
History repeats itself. More information on Greg Ball and his shady loans and illegal campaign transfers.
This is nothing new. Glad someone at the Journal News is still doing their job!
Ball steals money from charity, plots cover-up:
When the Washington Post reported that Greg Ball established a political action committee called Citizens United for Ethical Growth (CUEG) to funnel money from a charity which he also founded into his assembly race, the assemblyman denied the charges and slammed the paper. “The story is completely garbage,” he told the North County News.
But it wasn’t. The record is clear: Greg Ball funded his 2006 assembly bid with money donors thought would be spent to improve kids. It was a scam three years in the making.
In 2003, Ball founded the PAC, Citizens United for Ethical Growth, explicitly to raise funds for his future assembly race, but concealed this true purpose from donors. Instead, he cast the organization as a group dedicated to “smart growth” and environmentally-friendly development.
In 2004, Ball organized a charity polo match called “the Courage Cup” and promoted it as a fundraiser for kids in inner city Philadelphia, to provide them with an opportunity to learn to ride horses and play polo. However, in 2005, Ball used the charity to raise funds for his future assembly race by selling tickets to the Courage Cup’s “Golden Mallet Tent” through CUEG. Ball claimed afterwards that there was a disclaimer on the ticket website. “The disclaimer was so clear,” he told the North County News. “I’m still waiting for someone to tell me that the disclaimer wasn’t there.”
A disclaimer was there. It stated: “Profits arising from money raised by the Golden Mallet Tent will go towards supporting Citizens United for Ethical Growth (www.cueg.net, A Political Action Committee dedicated to promoting smart growth, Environmentally Sensible Policies, and Sustainable Development).”
But CUEG’s financial disclosures—as required by law—clearly show that all of the organization’s expenditures and donations were actually intended for Ball’s assembly race all along.
Why not just tell donors the truth?
“I thought the money was going to kids,” Courage Cup attendee Andrew McKenna told the Washington Post when the paper told him that his name was found in Ball’s campaign finance records. “I’d be pretty [infuriated] if I found out this was for a political race.”
“It was billed as a fundraiser to get kids involved with polo,” Britt Jung, another attendee told the Post, after expressing surprise at being found among CUEG’s donors.
It doesn’t end there though:
In 2007, now a freshman assemblyman, Ball engaged in a bitter public dispute with Andrea Rogers and Keri Ann Meslar, to whom gave charge of Courage Cup in 2006. Ball wanted to be in charge of the organization again, but Rogers and Meslar didn’t want anything to do him. They told the Post that Ball “ran a frat-party type” event that raised only $1,000 each year for charity and left behind sloppy records and unpaid bills.
After Rodgers and Meslar established Courage Cup as a legal charitable organization in the state of Virginia during Ball’s absence, in January 2007, Ball e-mailed several thousand local polo enthusiasts claiming that he was hosting the real Courage Cup and posted an open letter on couragecup.com denouncing Rodgers and Meslar for attempting to “hijack” his “intellectual property” by “stealing” Courage Cup. (Rodgers and Meslar had moved the official organization’s site to couragecup.org in mid-2006).
“A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into making the event a success,” he declared. Rodgers and Meslar responded with a press release outlining Ball’s failures, and went on to host the fourth Courage Cup—without Ball’s involvement—that June.
Ball only dismantled his Courage Cup site and took down his open letter after the Washington Post ran its story on June 12, 2007.
In its coverage, the Post asked a simple, but fundamental question: Why did Ball, a busy freshman assemblyman, want to keep running a charity party several hours from his home district?
“Perhaps because it helped him win his seat.”
It would have been illegal for Greg Ball to do a congressional campaign website while he was exploring!
Can all Balls records be FOIL-ED under the Freedom of Info. Act? Campaign stuff is on line but what about this congress stuff? How about foiling school grades from the Air Force, how about going back to HS and foiling all his records. Is this legal? Since there is so much distruct about this character, lets research him from the day he was born to see a clear picture as to whether or not he deserves our vote.
Look folks, from an attorney – Mr. Ball is not one – I am. The law is very simple on this. Read the FEC rules and regulations if you doubt me. I’ll try to explain in layman’s terms:
While Mr. Ball was in his so-called exploratory phase he was STRICTLY limited to not spend nor raise more than $5,000.00
Doing so would automatically make him a “DECLARED” candidate, whether he calls himself one or not. And with that new designation, Mr. Ball would be required by FEDERAL LAW to file a campaign filing withing 1 WEEK of exceeding the $5,000.00 threshold. Again, failing to do so would be a willful desire to flout the law and would carry with it a rather steep fine.
Now that Mr. Ball has declared himself a “DECLARED” candidate, the same rules apply. He must file within 1 WEEK of the announcement otherwise face a penalty.
interesting points. so, ball either wasn’t able to spend or raise $5k – pretty sad & pathetic or he did and is violation of federal law.
even if he didn’t raise or spend $5k, he’d still be in violation since he announced his candidacy to the students at jfk hs on april 29th – more than a week ago – yet he still hasn’t filed anything with the federal election commission.
someone please file a complaint! i’ve given you all the information. ball is in clear violation of federal law.
take him down! make him pay!
I THINK IT’S INTERESTING THAT BALL HAS SO MUCH TROUBLE BUDGETING AND WITH FINANCES. PERSONALLY, WITH HIS CAMPAIGN, WITH HIS ASSEMBLY OFFICE AND WITH A ‘CHARITY’ EVENT HE RAN.
EVERYONE HAS SAID THE SAME THING. HE’S LEFT BEHIND SLOPPY RECORDS AND UNPAID BILLS.
BY WAY OF EXAMPLE, CHECK THE NYS BOE FILINGS, HE STILL OWES MONEY TO VENDORS FROM HIS 2006 FIRST CAMPAIGN FOR STATE ASSEMBLY.
HIS NAME ISN’T GREG BALL – IT’S SLIME BALL.
PAY YOUR BILLS, LOSER!!
If you go and review lots of Balls filings, he has REPAID campaign funds to himmself in big sums over the past couple of years. What a way to make a living. Does a campaigner have to show the actual loans? to get this money or just say they put the money in. Looks like Ball uses this money as a paying job..
If this Ball guy was so broke, where did he get the money to put into his campaign then use campaign donations to pay himself back? Something is not making sense here. Comes from modest background, so possibly no money there…so where did ball get the money from? that he owes to himself?
Darn, I will not donate if he is paying himself.