Matt Kelty Campaign Loans

Below is a link to a pdf file Fort Wayne Observed posted earlier today:

<http://indiana.typepad.com/fwob/files/kelty_addendum_may_24_2007.pdf>

There are already a couple of posts concerning this topic already, please read them as well:

Fort Wayne Left
<http://fortwayneindiana.blogspot.com/2007/05/election-board-to-rule-on-legality-of.html>

Fort Wayne Left
<http://fortwayneindiana.blogspot.com/2007/05/matt-kelty-clearly-violated-campaign.html>

Fort Wayne News
<http://www.angrywhiteboy.org/index.php/2007/05/24/how-i-bought-my-first-house/>

I am an accountant I am not an attorney.

Our campaign finance laws are pathetic and are a barrier to a free political process. You should not have to consult with an attorney to determine if your campaign finance reports are correct; however, I have heard of several instances where just that has been done.

I can tell you this much for sure, from an accounting standpoint there is nothing wrong with what Matt Kelty did, it is done by corporations on a regular basis. For example, I have a number of clients who have loans of this nature and I always list them as personal loans on their Federal Tax Returns. This is 100% legal from an accounting standpoint. From a tax standpoint I do not care where the money came from, I care who has the liability to repay the loan! This is Accounting 101.

The only way anyone could possibly consider this illegal is if it is in fact illegal from a Campaign Finance Reporting standpoint. Jeff Pruitt has cited the portions of the Campaign Finance Manual that he feels are pertinent in the above posts I referenced.

(The below sentence was edited by Mike Sylvester at 6:08 PM.)
I do not think The Matt Kelty Campaign violated the actual law; however, they did possibly violate the spirit of the law. They should have erred on the side of caution and listed the loans as being from the three individuals and sevured by Matt.

I think that if I were the Treasurer for the Matt Kelty Campaign that I would have contacted the Allen County Election Board and requested they give me an opinion on how they should be reported in writing. My guess is that the Election Board would have "dodged" the question and referred me to Campaign Finance Law.

I think I would have listed the loans as being from the three individuals in questions rather then from Matt Kelty; however, I am not 100% sure how I would have handled it. Hindsight is 20/20.

Mike Sylvester