Blog blasts Bob

An anonymous weblog accuses Clement's campaign of circumventing the spirit of election finance laws

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

An anonymously written weblog, or blog, is quickly becoming the talk of Nashville's political community. The blog's target is former congressman and current mayoral candidate Bob Clement, his campaign, and their fundraising methods.

The blog, called "bobwatch," is being written by an anonymous individual using the screen name "Truthdoc."

In the blog's first posting, which was put up yesterday morning, "Truthdoc" accuses Clement campaign manager Larry Woods of directing questionable political action committee contributions to the Clement for Mayor campaign account.

While there are dozens of political blogs online today that comment on current political campaigns in Tennessee, "bobwatch" seems to be the first that is focusing on next years mayoral contest.

It has been a trend of Tennessee political blogs to offer commentary as opposed to breaking news. The "bobwatch" blog writer has broken the mold and done his or her own research. The blogger promises to "do more digging" into Clement's campaign in the future.

At issue are a number of political action committees' financial disclosure reports that detail donations totaling $40,100 to the Clement campaign.

Political action committees are groups that are organized for the election or defeat of a candidate or issue referendum. There is no limit to how large or small a PAC can be, but regardless of size each PAC has to file detailed financial reports to the either the local, state, or federal election commission, depending on which jurisdiction they are trying to affect.

Individuals can contribute to a PAC, as well as to an individual candidate endorsed by the same PAC.

While the Clement PAC contributions appear to be legal, their methods have raised a few eyebrows.

As for the claims leveled at Woods by the blog yesterday, NashvillePost.com has reviewed the documents cited in the posting and have found the assertions to be substantially correct, while interpretation of the documents is up to the reader.

Two PACs contributing to the Clement campaign were the "Education and Environment PAC" and the "Education Equals Success PAC." Both list Woods as the PAC treasurer and were funded solely by the contributions of Tom Beasley and Neil Parrish. Beasley is the former CEO of Corrections Corp. of America.

Four PACs contributing were the "Education and Technology PAC," "Reading Matters PAC," "Education and Jobs PAC," and "Better Schools PAC." All of those PACs list Woods as the witness to the PAC treasurer's signing of the financial discloure form. One Greg Morgan is listed as treasurer of two of the PACs.

Two more PACs are run by the family of Curtis J. McDowell, Clement's campaign coordinator. One, the "Stay in School PAC," lists Amanda McDowell as treasurer. The address listed for the PAC is also listed by Curtis McDowell as his place of employment, the Clement campaign headquarters.

According to Clement's campaign report, Amanda, a student at Nashville Tech, resides with Katherine E. McDowell, who is listed as treasurer of the "Pre K Education PAC." Their home address is listed as the mailing address for that PAC.

Three more PACs list Woods as either treasurer or witness to the treasurer's signature but have not made any donations to any campaign.

Of the three, the "Educational Resources PAC," is completely funded by former Dollar General CEO Cal Turner Jr., while "Children First PAC" and "Friends of Education," reported that they had not received any funds in the last reporting period and had no assets.

"We're excited to have the support of all these pro-education organizations," Woods said when asked to comment about the PAC contributions.

Regarding the propriety of the contributions and his involvement, Woods stated: "All of these groups are perfectly legal and have filed timely reports. I care about public schools, Bob Clement cares about public schools, and my kids went to public schools as did Bob and his children. I hope every campaign garners the support of pro-school organizations, even if they aren't ones I am involved with."

Woods confirmed that Curtis McDowell is an employee of the campaign, and when asked about McDowell's PAC sharing an address with the Clement campaign headquarters, Woods said: "If that is what it says on the reports, then it is accurate."

As for the "bobwatch" blog, Woods said he could not comment on it because he had not seen it yet.