In 2008, my mom, Countrycat, and I went to Iowa to campaign for John Edwards. When we arrived at the headquarters, the perky, happy manager of the headquarters told us we were assigned to the one job neither of us were cut out for: Phone calls. She told us IN A REALLY HAPPY VOICE, that we were to call people and “Ask them to send a vote John Edwards’ way in the caucus!!!” Our twitching eyes and the foam dripping from the sides of our mouths made her nearly trip over her Reeboks trying to get away from us.
After a little bit of moral support from my equally reluctant mother, I finally dialed my first number. As soon as I said the words “caucus” and “John Edwards”, the woman who answered went into hysterics. I tried to apologize for setting off a nervous breakdown triggered by John Edwards’ name, when she screeched in a tone that would make a banshee pee herself: “YOU ARE RUINING MY FAMILY LIFE. DON’T CALL BACK.”
She paused for a second, possibly thinking of ways to kill me and simultaneously bringing scenes from Psycho into my head, and then hung up abruptly.
At the time, I thought she was insane, I now understand.
Just last Thursday Ron Sparks' campaign referred to Left in Alabama as "an impartial progressive blog."Nice, but it didn't last!
Team Sparks' latest missive slams countrycat -- one of our best, most fair-minded and principled writers -- for plagiarism and calls her an "idiot." Brian has posted the entire Sparks press release here, so I'll just give you a tiny sample of the snark level of Ron Sparks' PROFESSIONAL communications team:
The response comes straight from the crack Davis research staff as cut and pasted by some blogger called CatPaw, or SunDog, or MadCow. (Face it, ain't no blogger got the time to come up with THAT post.)
Yes, Ron Sparks actually paid someone to write that screed and sent it out to professional news media across the state. How embarrassing for his donors. At least they gave us a link.
What is Team Sparks talking about?
Countrycat's post from last Friday: What is Ron Sparks Selling? Which she apparently couldn't have written & researchedherselfbecause bloggers just don't spend that kind of time on their work. Pure, unadulterated BS!
Yes, that post absolutely took a lot of time, and I have a news flash for Ron Sparks and his communications team:Many blog posts take a lot of time -- see this, this, this, this for examples of time consuming articles written by Alabama bloggers. I spent about 15 hours on that last one, for no compensation whatsoever, and the candidate has turned out to be a disappointment, too! We're blogging because we care about good government, because we want to see accurate information find an audience and because it needs doing, and we care enough to sacrifice our own personal time doing it. If someone buys a blogad or makes a contribution, that's great, but no one below Markos is doing this for anything but love.
Ron Sparks has decided to pick a fight with the media and almost any media outlet will do. Last Thursday night in Huntsville, he went after the Birmingham News for questioning his campaign loan. We're flattered he thinks this blog is so influential as to be among the first he needs to discredit, and countrycat is particularly pumped to be at the top of his $%# list, given the reams of positive posts she's written about him over the years. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say.
As we've already pointed out, communications from Ron Sparks have sunk to the level of a C-list blog -- a seemingly endless stream of name calling, baseless attacks and unsubstantiated allegations. No reputable news outlet will touch the juvenile tripe they've been sending out about their opponent, so now Sparks is attacking a pseudonymous blogger, a case of "punching down" if ever there was one. Brian is right, this is how to tell your campaign is off the rails, 101.
The Sparks accusations against countrycat are completely baseless.
The plagiarism charge is made up out of whole cloth, or perhaps desperation. Believe me, if we reprint something from a campaign, you know it's from the campaign! Look for the blue boxes.
Countrycat did the digging for that piece herself at Opensecrets.org. Notice she meticulously linked to source material, something the Sparks communication team should do more often; their links are scarcer than hen's teeth, possibly because they have no source material. She called me Friday and we went over it line by line -- you don't want to make a factual error in a post like that. She also asked me to check the math, which is a good thing, since all the percentages were off by two decimal places in the original -- she's a writer, not a math major, lol!
Why does Ron Sparks sanction such a personal attack on countrycat?
This woman is a professional writer, citizen journalist and 5th generation Alabamian (also shotgun enthusiast) with a long history as a Ron Sparks booster. In 2007 she liveblogged the Madison County Democratic Reunion (coming up April 24 this year!) and snapped this photo of Sparks checking out Daily Kos -- "Ron Sparks arrived, gave a barnburner speech, and hung out at the blog for a while:"
A few weeks later she founded Blue Sparks in Alabama, a (now defunct) blog dedicated to boosting Ron Sparks should he seek Jeff Sessions' US Senate seat. When Sparks was taking a lot of heat for insisting on a clear field or no go in the Senate race, countrycat defended his position in this DKos post, Alabama Party Primaries: the Ugly Facts of Life.
There was a lot of criticism about Ron Sparks' desire to avoid a primary challenge. Several comments expressed a lot of disappointment, thinking that Sparks just can't take the heat, isn't tough enough, etc.
I don't believe that - and neither do most Alabama Democratic activists. To understand why, you need a bit of info about Alabama politics and election laws.
Since Sparks has been in the gubernatorial race, countrycat has searched high and low for positive stories to write about him, and was persistent enough to get a phone interview with him on the broadband issue -- one of his better issues. Her criticism of Sparks over the course of the campaign has been reluctant and always includes a constructive component -- when our Nov. interview with Sparks was interrupted by a fire alarm, countrycat used the time to give him pointers on how to make (or tell his web designers to make) his campaign website more friendly to dial-up visitors. She has wanted Sparks to succeed and to be the candidate we glimpsed in 2007.
What does countrycat get for her interest in this political figure, her efforts to draw attention to his ideas and positive attributes and her honest advice when he's off course?
She's called a plagiarist; a catspaw for the Davis campaign; an "idiot." In short, she gets a kick in the teeth.
Every new day brings at least one new Sparks for Governor "press release" into my email inbox. And each one is more dreadful than the last. They've taken a plunge downward: from semi-hysterical and over-caffeinated comic pieces to truly nasty, poorly-sourced mud-slinging.
I don't write that lightly and I don't like criticizing a fellow Democrat in this manner. But if Republicans were sending this stuff out, we'd be all over them. It's just hypocritical to gloss over behavior in a Democrat that we'd vilify a Republican for.
Even Ron Sparks isn't proud of them. If he were, every single one from the past 2 1/2 weeks would be on his Web site with his other press releases. But there's only one of the series posted. A March 10 piece that alleges:
If you ever wondered what $560,000 buys you, it buys a Congressman's vote and a lifelong relationship to do what you want, when you want it.
The basic allegations are that "the health care industry" and "Big Oil" have contributed so much to Davis that he dances to their tune. It's a serious charge and one that deserves serious attention - and supporting data. (See Mooncat's comments about the health care industry donations from a few days ago.)
At the Madison County Democratic Executive Committee meeting last night, Sparks repeated another serious charge: that Davis sold his vote on the 2003 energy bill (HR6) in exchange for $37,000 in oil industry contributions.
I'm sure Davis would love to similarly pick apart Sparks' votes, since the Commissioner asserts that he would never sell his vote. Oh, but wait... as Agriculture Commissioner, Sparks has never had the ability to take public votes. On anything. Which is convenient when you're running against a sitting member of Congress.
All we have are Sparks' public statements and campaign finance disclosure forms. And they aren't nearly as complete as Davis' congressional forms. That's a failure of Alabama law, not Sparks personally.
But when you compare the information available, the picture on who's buying which candidate isn't nearly as clear cut as Sparks would have us believe. Numbers - as well as some other Davis votes on energy-related legislation - are on the flip.
Bingo came to a head this week – sort of. It has been a general boil on the body of Alabama for months. It has been a specific boil on both bodies of the Alabama Legislature this entire session. But the bingo boil came to a head this week – sort of.
The bingo bills encountered rough going from the very start. They were written by the most powerful bingo operators. Every provision enlarged the more powerful and diminished the less powerful. But all the bingo people could not agree on the proposed bill. Yes, the bingo boil came to a head this week – sort of.
The long and the short of it is that the bingo bills were not passed, and their sponsors were not optimistic that they would pass if brought up again this session. Sanders does not advise allowing this problem to fester.
We must lance the boil or do something else to bring bingo to a real head.
I have introduced two pieces of legislation that I think will help. On February 17, I introduced a simple measure providing for a statewide bingo commission to overlay all the Constitutional Amendments and resolve the legal issue. It would go into effect immediately. Those that are legal would be free to operate and those that are illegal would be shut down. Some of the crazy politics would be brought to an end.
The day after the bingo bills failed, I introduced a second proposal to let folk vote just on the question of bingo. There are no provisions for the big bingo bosses or anyone else. The people will vote “yes” or “no” just on the question of whether bingo should be legal. If they vote yes, additional laws would be passed to regulate and tax it.
I believe that these two pieces of legislation would really bring the bingo boil to a full head. However, if someone else has different ideas that work better, I will support those. I just know the bingo boil must be brought to a full head, not sort of.
Now, let's look at what our gubernatorial candidates are advocating. Both Artur Davis and Ron Sparks have recently sent out statements on this issue.
Could you or I get a $500,000 loan the way Ron Sparks did, with his income and assets? We could not, according to David Kemp, president of a financial consulting firm that, among other things, trains lenders.
At a minimum, a typical lender would require a salary ranging between $144,000 and $156,000, as well as $625,000 in debt-free real estate as collateral, to make a $500,000 loan, said Kemp, a former executive with Citicorp North America and commercial lender for two Southern banks.
Sparks earns a $79,026 salary as state agriculture commissioner. His Montgomery home is assessed at around $240,000, although Sparks has said that its actual value is between $300,000 and $350,000. He listed no other income or real estate holdings in his latest filing with the Alabama Ethics Commission and has said there were no co-signors on his loan.
"Just from a pure banking perspective, it wouldn't make much sense from that set of facts that anybody at a bank would make that kind of loan," Kemp said.
Even if his home is debt free, Sparks would need another $300,000 of property as collateral for a loan of this size, and another $70,000 or so of annual income -- under the rules that would apply to a normal bank customer.
Why can a candidate for governor get a loan for his campaign an average person would never be approved for?
Anyone who cares about good government can see this is problematic - this loan comprises 40% of the money Sparks reported in January. Without it his campaign would have been dead in the water. How did this miracle occur? Democratic voters need to know whether this is a normal loan or a favor from some secret Santa -- who may expect return favors in the future.
Once again, if there is more income, Ron Sparks should report it and if he used other, undisclosed property as collateral, it is in his best interest to make that public. Sunlight and disclosure are the only way to quash the rumors and speculation.
... but if you thought this was just a slip of the tongue by a candidate responding to an unexpected question in a casual setting, think again. Ron Sparks' campaign put out a press release Thursday saying ...
A convention is another way to raise taxes on the working people of this state. Can you imagine who would get hurt if Exxon [sic] Davis and every Alabama special interest group came together in a constitutional convention? Higher taxes for us. Tax cuts and tax breaks for the special interests that pay him off.
News flash to Ron Sparks:The special interests who wrote the 1901 Constitution are the same ones still getting hefty tax breaks today - and they're not average Alabamians by any stretch of the imagination. In many cases they're out of state companies that own thousands of acres of Alabama timberland and could care less if Alabama kids have decent schools or not. Any kind of tax reform that has ever been proposed for a new, fairer constitution, would benefit the working people of Alabama, not tax them at a higher rate. This accusation is pure hogwash.
Anyone who pays even a little attention to Alabama politics realizes that the 1901 Constitution holds this state back in many, many ways. It's a large part of the reason we so often have to "Thank God for Mississippi" whenever state rankings are released for education, economic conditions, public health and so forth. Cities and counties have no home rule. The Legislature spends half it's time embroiled in local issues. Economic development initiatives are discouraged. And after 109 years, it's pretty obvious that article by article reform is a polite euphemism for "no reform, no way."
I'm extremely happy that a Democratic candidate for governor, Artur Davis, has come out for making a clean break with the past and trusting the people of Alabama to elect delegates to a convention and pass critical judgement on the document arising from that convention. I'm extremely disappointed that another Democratic candidate, Ron Sparks, has chosen to villify the notion of a constitutional convention - using right wing "tax increase" language, no less - in an attempt to differentiate himself from his opponent.
Just this week I've received at least four press releases from Ron Sparks' campaign, each ending in a litany of things Sparks would do if governor. The final item in each one is ...
"And Let the People Vote."
Too bad Sparks is willing to let the people vote on bingo or a lottery, but not on a constitutional convention or a new constitution.
If you recall, in early August of 2009 I told you that Bradley Byrne and Tim James would be the top contenders in the Republican primary and that they would eventually be pitted in a GOP runoff to face Democrat Artur Davis in November. I stand solidly behind that scenario. My prediction at that time was based on intuition. Today’s confirmation prognosis is based on fact.
Flowers relies pretty heavily on end of year fundraising reports to back up his predictions. That may not be the case every time, but it's the way to bet. Candidates who can't afford to get their message out seldom win.
He also predicts Jim Folsom, Jr. will win a 4th term as Lt. Governor and that "Sparks will benefit from the George Wallace admonition that more folks vote against someone than for someone." I think that idea is not lost on the Sparks campaign as their releases lately have been much more negative about Davis than positive about Sparks. How much mud will half a million buy? We may find out because so far the media isn't distributing it for free.
From a considerably less esteemed/informed source, CasinoGamblingWeb says, "The leading candidate from the Democratic side is Ron Sparks." They also mention Republican Bill Johnson in a favorable light, although they didn't go so far out on the limb as to actually call him "the leading Republican."
The Huntsville Times reported this morning that the City of Huntsville plans to compete to be a test city for Google's new high-speed broadband network.
Mayor Tommy Battle plans to create a "Get Google" task force in the coming days to rally community support for Huntsville's application.
You can get behind the idea now by joining the "Google4HSV" fan page on Facebook. Started by Huntsville resident Peyton McNully, it already has more than 2,800 members.
That's terrific news for people in Huntsville because it's yet another option to compete with cable company providers and other telecommunications companies. Naturally, Google is looking for communities with large, tech-saavy populations - communities that probably already have broadband options.
However, small towns and rural areas continue to have limited - if any - options for broadband service.
So it was good to receive a copy of Congressman Artur Davis' economic plan "to create the jobs of tomorrow, today" and find that it contains a section on broadband. Congressman Davis spoke about his plan at Alabama A&M University on Monday and Mooncat and I attended the press conference.
It appears to be Sparks effort to seek a break from repeated questions about that $500,000 personal loan to his campaign. If you have time to kill, decide for yourself. Check Davis votes on energy and finance and anything else on the VoteSmart page here.
Looks like the bright, shiny object technique failed -- this is from today's Birmingham News:
Sparks said his reports are accurate, although he might have been better off reporting the personal loan to his campaign as a bank loan. But even if he had done that, voters apparently still wouldn't get a sense of Sparks' finances from looking at his ethics forms.
True, ethics forms require officials to list their income and assets only in broad ranges. But in our view, it's a problem if they are so vague they can fail to reflect half a million dollars in wealth.
I suppose it's possible that Sparks' ethics forms are accurate, but I seriously doubt it in the case of the 2008 form.
From 2002 through 2007, Sparks' Statement of Economic Interests (ethics form) lists income of "less than $1,000" from a checking account and "$1,000 to $10,000" from a mutual fund or savings account. He also lists debt of "Less than $25,000" from "Banks (include Credit Cards)" for those years. The strange thing is that his most recent form, 2008, lists neither outside income nor debt in any amount. 2008 was the first year Sparks used the online form, so he could easily have made an error with the new form, but in light of the $500,000 loan, it's hard to believe he actually had NO other income in 2008, let alone NO debt whatsoever, especially since Sparks recently stated he owes $60,000.
We won't get a picture of Sparks' 2009 finances until late April, at earliest, when his 2009 disclosure is due. Unfortunately, the $500,000 loan appears to have been nicely timed (Jan. 8, 2010) so Sparks isn't obliged to report that on his ethics form until April, 2011.So much for transparency. He should have correctly reported it on his campaign finance forms, though.
I'm frankly surprised Sparks hasn't corrected the 2008 ethics form or that state ethics watchdogs like the Mobile Press-Register or the Birmingham News haven't complained about it. It's almost certainly incorrect.
That's the most charitable excuse I can come up with for the campaign's latest flurry of semi-hysterical press releases. Mooncat has already discussed the "Man Without A Plan" email series, noting:
I swear, these missives make me downright nostalgic for the emails of former campaign manager Justin Saia, which were not sufficiently appreciated at the time.
These latest emails make me nostalgic for Dick and Jane readers. The grammar was better; there were pictures; and the stories were easier to follow.
In the past 24 hours, the Sparks campaign has sent three more emails with these titles:
Day 7: Still No Funding Plan
Day 8: Still No Funding Plan
Artur Gives Big Breaks to Oil, Credit Card Companies
Today's latest is a treasure trove of logical fallacies. In fact, the fallacy part is the only thing "logical" about the allegations contained in the email:
Ron Sparks has never taken money from large corporations and turned around to vote the way they wanted him to vote.(Appeal to Motive, Judgmental Language, Poisoning the Well --- and, by the way, the Agriculture Commissioner doesn't have a vote on anything.)
“I'm here to stand up for working Alabamians, not to punish them because some big company gave me money to do what they wanted me to do,”(Appeal to Emotion) Sparks said. “My vote will never be for sale like Artur Davis'. The only people I'll listen to when making decisions are the people of Alabama.”
Davis has yet to respond to the fact he sold his votes in Congress.(Fallacy of Many Questions .. aka... "loaded question" like: "When did you stop beating your wife?" ...often used rhetorically, so that the question limits direct replies to those that serve the questioner's agenda.)
And those are just the ones that jumped out at me on the first reading. Ok... so we understand that campaign literature is, at its heart, a form of propaganda. Not in a bad sense, but because the campaign is deliberately using information to try and influence the opinions of others and encourage them to reach a predetermined outcome.
However, good campaign literature - even attack pieces - provides background and context for the information presented. Just throwing around wild charges and innuendo is more of a characteristic of a bad blog post than a professional campaign communication.
This reminds me of the fall of 2008 when crazy relatives kept sending me those "Obama is a Muslim who won't salute the flag and isn't even a citizen" emails.
Truly, the latest Sparks campaign emails are so bad that it's hard to critique them seriously instead of just ridiculing them.
Who cares about the (large and boring) Republican gubernatorial field? All the excitement in Alabama's gubernatorial race comes from Democrats Artur Davis and Ron Sparks. Chuck Dean of the Birmingham News writes ...
On Saturday, Sparks denied that he had ever implied the money came from his own personal accounts. Reminded of his previous statements, Sparks finally said he couldn't recall exactly what he had said earlier but said the letter should put the matter to rest.
It didn't.
Davis, who appeared along with Sparks and six Republicans running for governor at a Saturday forum in Hoover, said the letter does nothing to explain how Sparks qualified for the loan.
...
"How many people in this state making seventy thousand dollars a year, which is roughly his salary, who have no assets, whose home is valued at two hundred and some thousand dollars, can get a five hundred thousand loan with no collateral and no co-signers? If banks are that generous, it would be news to a lot of hard-working families in Alabama."
The only mention of the Republican candidates was the fact that six of them were present at the forum.
Remember the Meadowcraft plant in Wadley, Alabama that was forced into bankrupcy -- despite a backlog of business -- because Wells Fargo wouldn't give them a loan to cover operational costs? Obviously, Meadowcraft should have tried doing business with River Bank in Montgomery instead of Wells Fargo.
"This is the honest truth. I borrowed the money from River Bank and put it in my campaign," Sparks said in an interview Friday.
It's not unusual for candidates in to make personal loans or get bank loans for a statewide campaign.
Dicie Smith, senior vice president for River Bank & Trust in Montgomery, confirmed Sparks' statements in a phone interview. She also provided a letter saying Sparks had a long relationship with the bank and met its loan criteria, including credit history and ability to repay.
There's nothing here that couldn't (and shouldn't) have been released three weeks ago. Think of the bad press Sparks would have avoided had he pre-empted this story by releasing full details when the question first arose. Instead, the campaign stonewalled and only admitted the money was a loan this week. Sparks had previously said:
"I have the assets, and my loan to the campaign makes that obvious. ... I have been very blessed in my life. Through hard work, saving and investing, I have the financial ability to make this loan to my campaign ..."
Which only made things worse, as it sounded like Sparks had the cash or liquid assets to loan half a million to his campaign, when nothing else in his public disclosures ever indicated that kind of wealth.
It wasn't until Tuesday morning, during an interview with Rick Journey, that Ron Sparks admitted the half million was a bank loan.
“I am a good credit risk… I have the ability to go to the bank and borrow money and put it in my campaign,” he said this morning on FOX6 News Good Day Alabama.
... and said:
... he was willing to release additional documentation to resolve the issue.
“I’ll do it as soon as we possibly can… I’ll tell my campaign… absolutely.”
"As soon as we possibly can" turned out to take three more days, just in time to catch the all important Friday news cycle. This campaign certainly doesn't do damage control in rapid response mode. There's one other point worth mentioning from the most recent story -- payback. It isn't clear if this is part of Sparks' statement or in response to a query.
Sparks said no one co-signed the loan with him, and he has not yet repaid the bank.
Well, of course he hasn't repaid the bank yet. His campaign needed the money and will continue to need the money right up until June 1. Ron Sparks is personally on the hook for half a million dollars and he has to hope he can raise that much to retire the debt after June 1. I wish he had taken my advice and also added something like, "I'm willing to mortgage my future for this campaign because I'm confident that we will prevail."
It would have fit nicely with the underdog image he should have been embracing all along.
Update: Below is a statement from Sparks' Democratic rival, Rep. Artur Davis.
Statement from Congressman Artur Davis:
I am not surprised that for two weeks, numerous reports have questioned how a man with no assets and a $79,000 salary manages to transfer $500,000 to his campaign. I find it curious that Sparks failed to disclose on his campaign finance report that the source of the $500,000 was a bank loan; I find it even more curious that instead of being straightforward with the press in the past several weeks, he was so vague and so evasive on this matter. But I think one question matters above all: how many Alabamians could obtain a half million dollar loan with no assets, a home that is half the value of the loan, and no reported investments or other large holdings? Ron Sparks may think his finances are his business, but when a half million dollars lands in your campaign account on one day, and another $300,000 lands there a few days later by way of large gambling interests and PACS, voters deserve to know every detail.This late Friday afternoon letter from his bank does not begin to answer these questions.
I will just point out that the traditional media may have been asking questions for two weeks, but folks at this blog and others started asking about the $500,000 virtually as soon as we got the year end report -- a good three weeks ago. Open and transparent campaigns lead to better government, something all of us should be demanding.
No, this isn't some deep philosophical question. I'm genuinely curious as to the headline of tomorrow's email from the Ron Sparks campaign.
Yesterday:
Day 1: Still No Funding Plan
Artur Davis: The Man Without a Plan But Lots of Slogans
Can't Pay for Promises
On February 22, 2010, Artur Davis announced his 19-page “jobs” program, 19 pages filled with spending items like tax credits, tax incentives and new programs.
Today:
Day 3: Still No Funding Plan
Artur Davis: The Man Without a Plan But Lots of Slogans
Nineteen pages on jobs (probably copied from a Harvard economics book) and not one word about a plan to fund his many promises.
Notice anything missing? Like Day 2? Will tomorrow be Day 4 (which normally falls after Day 3) or Day 5 (the next odd number) or is it even predictable? We only have the first two terms in the series, so the pattern could be something completely different, like Next=(N)*2+1 which would mean tomorrow will be Day 7. The suspense is killing me.
BTW, love how they worked in a Harvard* reference today. Further down they use "dunno" nine times, to reinforce ... I dunno, something?
I swear, these missives make me downright nostalgic for the emails of former campaign manager Justin Saia, which were not sufficiently appreciated at the time.
* See Is Somebody Named "Harvard" Running for Governor, July 2009. We never got an unequivocal denial of that poll from the Sparks campaign, and their expenditures indicate they had a poll going during that timeframe. Perhaps they found the "Harvard" terminology plays well with "dunno" voters?
Ron Sparks released a statement Monday indicating that the surprising half million dollar loan he made to his gubernatorial campaign was secured through a personal loan.
"I am a good credit risk. I have the ability to borrow money to loan to my campaign and that is what I did."
On his year end campaign finance report, Sparks did not indicate the money came from a lender and his past financial statements have never indicated he was a wealthy man. Via the statement, Sparks also said that would be "the end of the matter."
Of course it wasn't, and Rick Journey asked him about it this morning on Good Day Alabama and at last he seemed willing to disclose the source of the money:
During this morning’s interview, Sparks stated he was willing to release additional documentation to resolve the issue.
“I’ll do it as soon as we possibly can… I’ll tell my campaign… absolutely.”
Finally, the Sparks campaign is going to put this thing to bed. If there's a simple, perfectly aboveboard answer to the $500,000 question, why on earth didn't they release the additional documentation 3 weeks ago and save themselves a lot of distraction and unfavorable buzz? This is simple stuff and a number of other candidates have done it in the past. The statement should look something like this.
"I borrowed $XXX from Y Bank (or Mr. Y, as the case may be) in order to lend it to my campaign. This is an indication of how confident I am that we will win this election."
End of story, campaign continues from here. About damned time!
On Monday gubernatorial candidate Artur Davis unveiled his economic plan -- an Alabama jobs plan, if you will. It includes tax credits for new jobs that pay higher than average wages and jobs in high unemployment areas; lending programs geared to small businesses; expanded availability of venture capital; incentives for existing businesses that expand, upgrade or launch new products; lifelong learning accounts; tax incentives for adult education; child tax credits for working class families; initiatives to expand biotech and aerospace industries in the state; expanding nuclear power generation and transfer; a new rural energy initiative; expanded broadband and public internet access; a new rural infrastructure initiative and a plan to tie federal transportation funds to an actual statewide master transportation plan.
Now, I don't care for the nuclear power expansion and am still skeptical of offshore drilling (Drill, baby, drill! scarred me for life) but there is a lot of good stuff in there -- best practices from other states and ideas that haven't already been around the block a dozen times. This is the kind of plan that really could lift Alabama to the next level.Think North Carolina, Georgia or Virginia ...a place where we don't have to be eternally thankful for Mississippi! Another great benefit of Davis' economic plan is that it's finally shaken some lottery/gambling revenue numbers out of his Democratic rival, Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks.
For the better part of a year, we've been asking how much Sparks' Lifestart Lottery would bring in for higher education and the customary answer was, "more than we have now." Ditto the tax on casino gambling. Sparks wouldn't even commit to an approximate tax rate on gambling until November, when he said "I would tax it at the same rate that our neighboring states are taxing gambling."That could be as low as 10 to 15%, given that rates in Mississippi are around 11%. But now Sparks has unveiled the following plan:
The Sparks Plan
Now THIS is a Plan, Artur
“I'm the first and only candidate with a plan who has the money to pay for education during the worst recession of our lifetime. And, I promise you, when elected governor I will get it done for the working families of Alabama,” Sparks said.
- Close tax loopholes and make multinational corporations pay their fair share in taxes.
- Create jobs by expanding economic development incentives and targeting tax credits.
- Create an education lottery to give every high school graduate a colleg (sic) scholarship. Raise $400 million for our kids.
- Create voluntary pre-kindergarten for every four-year-old child.
- Make electronic bingo operators pay a minimum of 25 percent in state taxes, investing new dollars in our schools and in programs for seniors. Raise $400 million per year and give five percent to counties without gaming operations.
- Create a $1 billion highway construction program that will create 30,000 new jobs and impact every county in Alabama, along with $400 million in additional funding from the federal GARVEE program.
Follow me below the fold for some analysis and perspective on Ron Sparks' economic plan.
Candidate for governor Ron Sparks comes across as a man who is getting very frustrated with calls for him to reveal those assets that allowed him to lend his campaign a half-million dollars when his state ethics filings show only modest means.
His campaign released a statement late Friday that said, in part: "I am a 57-year old man with very little debt. I own residential property and property in North Alabama. I pay my bills. I am a good credit risk. I have the ability to borrow money to loan to my campaign and that is what I did."
The statement went on: "This is the end of this matter. I refuse to be held to a standard other candidates are not required to meet."
...
Asked if the money for the loan came in any way from gambling interests or from gambling winnings, Sparks said, "I have the ability through my resources to do it, and I did it on my own with no gambling interests whatsoever."
The Advertiser also mentioned that Sparks previously told a "political blogger" (that's us) "I want people to know what I make." He also said he wanted people to know what he owned and what he owed.
We picked up all the available Statements of Economic Interests (SEI) for Ron Sparks at the Alabama Ethics Commission on Friday. There isn't much there. In fact, the only numerals Sparks had to enter on the forms are in the address and phone number fields.
From 2002 through 2007 Ron Sparks reported "other income information" (section 6)consisting of:
His Ag. Dept. salary of $50,000 - $150,000
AmSouth Mutual Fund -- $1000 -$10,000
AmSouth Checking -- Less than $1000
The information in section 6 for all years 2002 - 2007 is exactly the same. This form is from 2002, click to enlarge.
In 2008 Sparks filed online (click for image) and does not list any "other income" in section 6 of the form, just "Not Applicable." It doesn't appear that the reporting requirements have changed -- Bradley Byrne's 2008 form lists interest income of "less than $1000," for example. What happened to the mutual fund and the checking account?
From 2002 through 2007 Ron Sparks also reported "indebtedness information" (section 8) consisting of:
Banks (include Credit Cards) or "Less than $25,000."
The image below is secton 8 of Sparks' 2002 SEI -- the information is the same for 2002 - 2007. Click to enlarge.
Sparks' 2008 form lists no indebtedness whatsoever. Note there is no requirement to list debt "associated with the (homestead) home in which you live." All of section 8 is marked "Not Applicable." Did Ron Sparks swear off credit cards in 2008?
Through 2007, Sparks only listed income from a mutual fund, a checking account and his salary. Now, let's say his mutual fund was earning 5% (for some of the years 2002 - 2007 it should have earned considerably more, but let's be conservative) and that it returned him $10,000 -- the maximum income level he marked -- the principle would have been $200,000.
That isn't enough to cover the $500K loan. Probably not even enough to cover it in conjunction with a mortgage on his home (worth approx. $240,000.) And remember, the mutual fund income isn't even listed for the most recent year.
Where did the money come from? I'm sure Ron Sparks is tired of being asked, but the $500,000 question isn't likely to go away unanswered.
Temporary turncoat Congressman Parker Griffith has had little good to say about Democrats or the Democratic Party since he took office.
In fact, from the way he talked about President Obama at the Madison Republican Women's meeting in Huntsville on Wednesday, I got the feeling he thinks he's actually running against Obama on June 1st. Talk about delusions of grandeur...
That's why it was interesting to hear him paraphrasing Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks' stump speech while answering a question on education. Parker may be dumb about politics, but he was smart enough to pick up on of Sparks' most effective lines: "Our students are competing against students in China and India" for jobs.
Sparks needs to send Parker a bill. After all, Parker has so few ideas that he can afford to pay for some good ones - just use some of that union money you're refusing to refund!
If Mr. Sparks has had a recent financial windfall, then why not say so? If he’s that good at saving and investing, he should be touting his financial abilities to voters.
...
His evasions raise serious questions about his integrity and credibility. If he doesn’t see that as a problem, voters certainly should.
Some candidates may be independently wealthy enough to do that. Others may resort to loans when contributions are too slow to wage a competitive campaign.
The Mobile Register reported Tuesday that Sparks refused to tell the paper where the $500,000 came from, a credible question given that he listed no assets aside from his Montgomery home and no income other than his $79,026 salary as state agriculture commissioner.
Sparks didn't help himself in his response to the questions by pointing fingers at other candidates (though not Davis) who have loaned money to their campaigns, too. Certainly, other candidates' financial disclosures need to be scrutinized just like Sparks' disclosures. But that doesn't change the bottom line, which is that Sparks' ethics disclosures don't match what is ringing up at his campaign's cash register.
He needs to amend either his campaign reports or his financial reports so voters can better divine the source of the money. It's the honest thing to do.
Back in November, Ron Sparks told LiA he wished he could give the Alabama Ethics Commission his W-2 forms to show how open his finances are. Perhaps if these newspaper editorial boards made a request, Sparks would share his W-2s to demonstrate that his finances are completely above board.
Sparks actually loaned his campaign $500k from his personal funds (in other words, the loan was real and the money is in his account, rather than a figment placed on the report)
Sparks' self-reporting of his assets leads us to believe that he received this $500k recently from some source.
Then it follows that Ron Sparks will have to pay income taxes on that $500K as a gift, although it wouldn't show up until he files 2009 taxes, assuming the gift was made before Jan. 1, 2010.
Also, if he continues to claim that he had the $500k from his own investments, that income should have been reported to the IRS in the past. Someone should ask him to make good on his wish to release his tax documents -- the only way to definitively clear the air. And if the records show that Ron Sparks has amassed $500K by regular saving and careful investment over his lifetime, well that would make the Artur Davis campaign look a little foolish, wouldn't it?
Win, win situation for Sparks, if the money really does reflect a lifetime of careful financial management.
I'm am only loosely affiliated with the group these days (oh, commuting) but I'm very excited to have the chance to help promote an event being hosted by our awesome University of Montevallo Young Democrats next Tuesday.
Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Ron Sparks will be speaking on campus at LeBaron Hall at 7:00PM next Tuesday, February 23. It will be a brief talk and attendees will likely (to my knowledge) have the chance to ask the Commissioner a few questions.
This has been a really great year for Montevallo in terms of campus political activity -- we have a very robust conservative group on campus that has hosted folks like State Rep. (and State Senate candidate) Cam Ward, and the Young Democrats will also be hosting Rep. Artur Davis in early March. I know both groups are looking forward to hosting more talks throughout the year.
If you're in the area and able to attend, please come by!
EVENT DETAILS
Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks
Tuesday, Feburary 23 at 7:00 PM
LeBaron Hall, University of Montevallo
Hopefully I will have a good explanation for my relative absence in a few days, but I at least had to stop by and share this -- it's my school, after all!
... to Ron Sparks' gubernatorial campaign. Over the weekend George Altman had a front page piece in the Mobile Press-Register about Ron Sparks' $500,000 personal loan to his campaign. The loan stands out in the 2010 gubernatorial field because, based on Sparks' Statement of Economic Interests, it isn't apparent that he had financial assets of anything like half a million dollars. Sparks responded to Altman's question via email:
"I have disclosed what is required, and until other candidates are willing to go beyond financial disclosure requirements, we should not be held to a different standard."
Strictly speaking, Sparks may not be required to disclose how he could afford to lend his campaign so much money -- Alabama disclosure requirements are nothing like as stringent as those for federal candidates -- but it would be politically smart to do so. Stonewalling reporters as to the source of the $500,000 makes it look like there's something to hide (Was there really a suitcase full of money on the doorstep? Or is the half mil illusory, à la Kay Ivey?) and the longer the speculation lingers, the worse Sparks looks.
Full disclosure would also be in line with Sparks' own stated desire to be as open as possible. He addressed ethics and transparency, specifically mentioning financial disclosure, when we interviewed him in November:
Starting at about 50 seconds, emphasis mine:
The other day I signed the chart when it talked about becoming governor, about your family. I even wanted to give them my W-2 form. I want people to know what I own; what I, what I owe; what I make. I think people would be shocked if they examine some other folks. I really do.
Sparks has gone from, "I want people to know what I own, ... what I owe, what I make" in November to, "I'm not disclosing where I got the $500,000" last week. That's a remarkable change in outlook in just 90 days and it should absolutely raise flags. Here is one of the cardinal rules of public life: If there's nothing to hide, don't look like you're trying to hide something.
Sparks stonewalled Altman on another point as well, refusing to give more information on $107,702.02 identified on the 2009 year end report as "transfer from another account." Since Sparks finally filed a termination report on his Ag Commissioner account Feb. 9 (one day after this reminder) we can see a matching $107,702.02 expenditure listed as "Transfer to Governor Account." The dates match.
That's the same kind of transfer Rep. Artur Davis made from his Congressional account -- which Sparks has repeatedly criticized. That transaction was completely aboveboard and there is absolutely no reason for Sparks to brush off the reporter who questioned it -- the truth is the right answer! This is downright counterproductive, since it gives the appearance something is being concealed and encourages the press to keep digging.
Ron Sparks needs to make a complete statement on the $500,000 and shut down this speculation about the source of his funding. The sooner the better.
I don't write that lightly and I don't like criticizing a fellow Democrat in this manner. But if Republicans were sending this stuff out, we'd be all over them. It's just hypocritical to gloss over behavior in a Democrat that we'd vilify a Republican for. 
Long time Alabama pol and pol-watcher 
