Campaign funding fax bloopers abound

COEUR d'ALENE - An election candidate's outrage about his opponent's use of taxpayer resources for campaign purposes has put his own campaign in the spotlight.

Bob Nonini, incumbent candidate for the District 5A seat in the Idaho Legislature, contacted North Idaho College and the Coeur d'Alene Press Friday after discovering that his opponent's political campaign financial disclosure report was faxed from a machine on the North Idaho College campus.

"I told Bob that's a clear violation of our policy," said John Martin, NIC's Vice President of College Relations.

David Larsen, Nonini's challenger in the Nov. 2 election, is an adjunct math instructor at NIC, and his treasurer, Pat Lippert, is a philosophy instructor.

Larsen's campaign financial disclosure was transmitted Tuesday by Lippert from the campus library.

Nonini told The Press the incident is indicative of NIC employees' "flippant attitude" regarding policies.

"It's very frustrating to work hard to run a campaign the right way, and then have our tax dollars used this way," Nonini said. "This is not only employee time, but taxpayers' resources. It's another reason I think we need a change at NIC."

An investigation of Nonini's own campaign financial disclosures revealed that his own campaign financial disclosure was faxed last week from a University of Idaho machine located at the university's research center in Post Falls.

Nonini's campaign manager/treasurer is Jerry Baltzell, a University of Idaho employee and the business manager at the research center.

"I certainly don't approve of that," Nonini said when made aware of the source of his own campaign fax. "I'll take the responsibility myself."

After issuing a press release calling for an investigation of the NIC fax incident by the Idaho Secretary of State, Jeff Ward, the North Idaho Field Director for the Republican party said, "It's bad all the way around.

"It just demonstrates that public institutions all around the state of Idaho need to start tidying up when it comes to their employees' political activities," Ward said.

Candidate Larsen said he is "certainly glad the Nonini campaign is concerned about this fax machine abuse."

"I certainly apologize to the citizens of Idaho for this mistake. Perhaps it is simply because I am not a career politician who knows far more about how to collect and report campaign donations," Larsen said. "He has raised a tremendous amount of money, with 80 percent of it coming from Political Action Committees."

Nonini's campaign contributions total $42,815, while Larsen has raised $3,590.

Martin, at NIC, said Lippert's actions on behalf of the Larsen campaign should not be interpreted as NIC's endorsement of such activities.

"College policy cautions employees who are active in politics to make every effort to indicate that they do not speak for North Idaho College," Martin told The Press. "While they can certainly participate in the electoral process, they can in no way shape or form use any of NIC's resources or time to work in political activities."

A memo was sent to all campus staff Friday reminding them of the policy.

Jay Lee, NIC's vice president for instruction, met with Lippert on Friday, Martin said. Lippert voluntarily offered to reimburse the college for the cost of the fax.

Any disciplinary actions that may be taken will not be made public, Martin said.

Joni Kirk, spokeswoman for the University of Idaho, said that institution will be looking into the situation at the research center.

The university has a policy specifically prohibiting employees from using time, funds or equipment to work on a political campaign.