CDs get the blame for Blunt’s slow refunds
One of the hottest facts to come out of Tuesday’s campaign-finance filings was Gov. Matt Blunt’s failure to return half of the $4.46 million in over-limit donations that he’s promised to give back.
Campaign spokesman, John Hancock, said then — and reaffirmed Wednesday — that the sticking point was that much of Blunt’s campaign cash was placed in short-term certificate of deposits, in order to collect interest.
The campaign would have to cash some early, and pay stiff penalties, if it had tried to pay all the refunds by Dec. 31, Hancock.
Instead, Blunt’s campaign is sending out refunds as various CDs mature. “We said we would return the money as soon as it is practical,” Hancock said. “We’re doing just that.”
Oren Shur, the campaign spokesman for Blunt’s Democratic rival, Attorney General Jay Nixon, asserted that it was wrong for Blunt’s campaign to benefit by collecting interest on over-limit money.
Blunt’s campaign says that the money wasn’t over any limit when it was collected and placed in those CDs.
The money was collected during the 6 months when Missouri candidates could receive donations of unlimited size under a now-defunct law, signed by Blunt, that repealed Missouri’s campaign donation limits.
The money became over the limit when the state Supreme Court restored the limits on July 19.
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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my limited experience on CD’s is that after a month or so, even with the penalties, the principle is as much as you put in. So generally if you keep longer than a month, you’re making money on it. So if Blunt’s doing that he’s trying to make interest not just avoid penalties; plus it’s their usual lies/damned lies/ statistics and prevaricating disingenuousness, and should be held in contempt. My contempt is there already.