It appears the Edwards for President campaign has been accepting (and later, in one case, returning) illegal campaign contributions from lawyers and their staffs. So, paralegals and secretaries are giving $2,000 a piece to the senator's campaign and the Edwards campaign thinks there's nothing fishy about this. The Hill has the scoop:
On March 6, Stacy Kern contributed $2,000 to the Edwards campaign. Two associate attorneys and five of the firm's six partners also contributed the maximum amount. Los Angeles County records show that Stacy Kern is not a registered voter and has not previously voted or contributed to a federal campaign.But campaign spokesbabe Jennifer Palmieri says "that the pattern of low-level employee contributions 'doesn't concern us'." Come on, you may not care where your money comes from, but it should be of some "concern" that the press knows about it. And the neo-Clinton campaign continues...
Her husband Robert, a self-employed travel agent, also gave $2,000 on the same day. Robert Kern was at one point registered to vote in Los Angeles, but after numerous unanswered letters since 1996 from the county registrar of voters, he was dropped from the voter rolls last year. As with his wife, Robert Kern has no record of having voted and made no previous federal campaign donations.
In 1998, Stacy Kern declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in California, with assets of $7,925 and liabilities of $126,769. In 1994, California assessed her husband with a $33,254 state tax lien, active until 2004. The Kerns are not listed as property holders.
