Board of Elections fines Morgan $1,200 for diverting funds for personal use
By
Will Collette
 |
| Wait till you see her excuse |
Morgan
represents the northern half of Charlestown as well as Richmond, her hometown
of Hopkinton, Exeter and a part of West Greenwich. She took that position as
part of the Right-Wing Class of 2014 by beating well-respected Sen. Cathy Cool
Rumsey. Morgan faces a rematch with Charlestown Democrat Jennifer Douglas in the November
8 General Election.
The
Board of Elections on its own conducted audits of the campaign accounts of
several candidates for public office. In Morgan’s case, they found two major
problems. One was the repeated offense of reporting large sums as “aggregated”
donations, meaning they did not identify the donor or required details such as
address and occupation.
The
more serious violation was the taking of campaign cash on multiple occasions totaling $2,603.
In
my mind, the most offensive thing Morgan did was to lie about the crime. In a statement
on Monday,
Morgan claims the money was used for a trip to Florida to receive an award from
the Trumplican Conservative Political Action Conference (C-PAC) and blamed her late
husband for her bookkeeping mistakes. He died in April 2021.
Always classy.
Here’s
what she said, as reported by the
Boston Globe:
·
Morgan issued a statement, saying, “First and
most importantly, I take full responsibility for the mistakes that I made in my
2021-2022 campaign finance filings.”
·
She said she was nominated to receive an award
at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida and “lumped the
total expense of travel into aggregate.” She said she did not break down all of
the expenses separately. as she should have, and corrected it as soon as she
was cited.
·
“I did not do anything in a deliberate attempt
to deceive the public,” Morgan said. “While it is not an excuse or deflection,
when my husband died in April 2021, I realized I not only lost my best friend
and confidante but also the one person who was most organized in my life.”
·
She said she has been in elected office now for
eight years and always complied with campaign finance laws.
·
“The outstanding issues with the Board of
Elections have been adjusted to their satisfaction and I will pay a fine,”
Morgan said. “I now have all the controls in place to ensure this does not
happen again.”
Except
this is far from the whole truth. That prompted the Board of Elections to release full
detail the following day. Nothing showed up in the audit related to Morgan’s
C-PAC Florida trip although it could be
As
for how Morgan spent the money flagged in the Board of Election audit, the Boston Globe
included
these:
· In
January and February 2020, Morgan spent $1,227 from her campaign account for
personal use, including a $500 cash withdrawal; $584 in expenses for food,
beverages, and meals; and $142 in miscellaneous expenses.
· In
April 2020, she used her campaign account to pay for $73 in groceries from
Aldi.
· In
April 2021, she used her campaign account to pay $320 at a Chelo’s restaurant.
· In
February 2022, she used her campaign account to pay $108 for “grooming expense”
at V Nails and Spa By Han.
· In
February 2022, she used her campaign account to pay $875 to Patriot Coins.
You
can read the full audit by clicking HERE.
The
audit shows an additional $2,749 of un-itemized “aggregate” expenses. This might
be the expenses for the Florida trip that Morgan mentioned in her statement.
At
the end of the BOE audit, you will see that Morgan accepted the findings and
waived all further proceedings. Thus, these are not “alleged” crimes since
Morgan has copped to all the charges. In my opinion, she got off lightly with
only a $1,200 fine and no criminal referral and probably ONLY because she made a deal.
Obviously Morgan’s claim that in her eight years as a state Senator, she has always complied with state election finance laws is a lie, especially when this audit only looked at the period from January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2022. That's only two and a half out of the almost eight years she has been in office.
She also lied when she threw her dead husband under the bus, blaming him for her financial misdeeds while also claiming she "takes full responsibility." Fully half of the time period covered by the audit was before his death including her grocery shopping at Aldi. Around the time he died, she spent $320 at Chelos.
Using campaign account money for personal expenses is a crime. She might think those funds are her money, but they aren't. And just because her icon Donald Trump did it doesn't make it legal.
Morgan was sworn
into office in January 2015. This kind of cavalier thievery doesn’t just happen
out of the blue. Indeed, you might almost expect a new legislator unfamiliar with campaign finance law to commit these violations. But she's now a veteran of eight years and should know better. I hope the BOE goes back and looks at the earlier five years.
Morgan
does not have a Republican opponent in the September 13 primary but she does
face a rematch with Democrat Jennifer Douglas in the November
8 General Election.