An interesting press release from the Philadelphia office of the FBI came across my emails today.
“Former Philadelphia City employee John D. McDaniel, 39, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty today to one count of wire fraud for allegedly stealing $100,000 from a campaign/political committee.” …
“Between 2010 and 2011, McDaniel used several methods to routinely and, at times, without authorization, withdraw funds from the committee account, which funds he then used for his own purposes and other purposes. At times, McDaniel wrote and cashed checks to himself and wrote checks to Progressive Agenda, a political action committee which he controlled, from which he then took stolen funds. McDaniel concealed the theft by filing false and incomplete campaign finance reports.”
I suppose the news of alleged corruption from a former treasurer of a
campaign/political committee for a Philadelphia City Councilperson in
Philadelphia doesn’t surprise me.
But the mention of Progressive Agenda did catch my eye. When I looked at its financial reports, in addition to the noted records of payments to and from McDaniels himself, there were contributions to a select handful of other Democratic groups. Among them were Laborer’s District Council PAC and Regional Priorities PAC, which appear to be heavily supported by the city’s laborers union.
Some of the recorded entries in the reports are payments to McDaniels for various “GOTV” activities and a “Voter ID Program.”
Apparently, Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter, who hired McDaniels, had already fired him from his airport job last week for such reporting irregularities.
On a completely separate note, Philadelphia did have have some interesting voting day poll incidents and election results last year.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.