Returning Campaign Cash: Justice Medina

I wondered why Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina returned $2000 to his campaign account on December 31, 2007. He found out he had broken the law - Texas Ethics Commission rules - about not using his judicial political account to reimburse himself for mileage between his Houston home and Austin, where the court is.

Terry Yates said Medina relied on bad advice from an accountant that he could use his political fund for the commuting costs.

"It turns out that is not permissive. He's in the process of paying the campaign back that amount of money that was improperly deducted," said Yates.

Medina paid himself nearly $57,000 for mileage reimbursement over the past three years. As of his most recent campaign expense report, filed Jan. 15, he had paid back $2,000. Yates said he did not know how much Medina would return and said that amended campaign finance reports are being prepared.

Is it enough for Medina to plead, "I'm sorry" and just return the cash? He ought to be fined by the Texas Ethics Commission for breaking the rules. For some reason Texas Watch does not feel they have clear information to file an ethics complaint against Medina over the mileage:

Winslow said Texas Watch doesn't plan to file an ethics complaint over Medina's mileage reimbursements because it could not determine from his reports where the trips occurred. Medina claimed between $1,000 and $3,000 for unspecified mileage for most months in 2005, 2006 and the first half of 2007.

"We could not pinpoint which of the reimbursements were for commuting expenses," he said.

Medina's monthly mileage reimbursements stopped after his Spring home burned last June in what fire investigators later said was a suspicious fire.

Texas Watch is wrong about this. All any citizen has to do is file a complaint if they suspect rules have been broken, and then the candidate or officeholder has to explain the situation under oath. You don't have to have fool proof evidence of a violation - that's up to the Ethics Commission to figure out based on their fact finding and the sworn response of the officeholder.

My suspicion is that Texas Watch doesn't want to get involved in something they think is not a sure thing. But, at this point, Medina has admitted to using campaign cash for commuting, and the Ethics Commission needs to fine him. That won't happen unless someone files a complaint.

I blog. We all continue to wonder why officeholders think they can get away with padding their personal income with campaign cash.

Hey, shouldn't the IRS get involved when campaign cash is used for personal use? That is something I have been wondering about for a long time.