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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Herman Cain spent over $100,000 of donor's money buying copies of his OWN book By Meghan Keneally Herman Cain may have based presidential bid around his 9-9-9 tax plan, but some of his other numbers may not be adding up. Financial filings show that the GOP candidate has used over $100,000 of donor's money to buy copies of booklets that his own company profits from. Mr Cain is the sole owner of a corporation called T.H.E. New Voice, Inc., which sells self-published booklets, DVDs and videos chronicling the pizza magnate's rise to fame. Recently released Federal Election Commission filings, show that the 66-year-old's campaign paid a total of $100,938.24 to that company for various pamphlets and literature handed out at campaign events. National opinion polls released Friday have Mr Cain leading the race, taking over Mitt Romney and garnering 26 per cent of the vote. Friday also brought more good news to the Cain campaign in the form of a win from the Nevada straw poll, which he won 30.8 per cent of the total. That news comes four days after the GOP field fought it out in a televised debate. This news may present legal issues for the presidential candidate, since he is the man that would be profit from this payment to his company. He and his campaign are not worried, however, and a spokesperson said that they even ran the decision by a campaign lawyer before doing so and he concurred. 'If they know Herman Cain, they wouldn't even make such an assertion,' Mr Cain said in response to the issue. 'How's that for political correctness!' His camp also said that when the issue was discussed, they raised the possibility of the company giving the booklets to the campaign for free, but felt that it would present additional issues since it might be seen as an illegal contribution to the campaign by a corporation. Commentators outside of the campaign feel that there are serious electioneering laws at stake given the fact that Mr Cain is the sole beneficiary of T.H.E. New Voice. This controversy has also lead people to speculate about what his real motivations are behind his run- whether he is after profits or the presidency. 'This has every appearance that Herman Cain is running for president largely to sell books and enrich his own company,' said Craig Holman, a public advocate. This year alone, even in the midst of campaigning, he has made over $250,000 in fees from motivational speaking gigs. At the moment, he is also promoting his book, titled This Is Herman Cain!: My Journey to the white House. Mr Cain shrugs off any implications that he is not focused on ending up in the White House, however, but does feel he can multi-task. 'I can promote a book and campaign at the same time,' he said. Political pundits have compared the situation to that of Sarah Palin, who lost her vice presidential bid but made hefty pay checks afterwards due to speaking fees, book sales, and television rights. The other, more sinister, comparison is to Jim Wright, the former Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives in the late 1980s who resigned in the wake of an ethics investigation looking into the connection between bulk purchases of his book and gifts from supporting groups. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: farmfriend (#0)
(Edited)
That's got to be illegal. He really has no right to make a profit off of donations. These funds were sent to his campaign for the sole purpose of running for president and no other reason. He has no right to profit personally from these donations. God is always good!
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