Here’s your refresher:

• Fischer’s Crew Still Don’t Get Campaign Finance [January 13]
• A Greg Fischer Prediction… [January 20]
• More On Fischer-KREF-Elliott-Corruption Mess [January 20]

His inaugural account filed amendments for its December 2010 and March 2011 Quarterly reports with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance last week:

Still no mention of the contributions from Bruce Lunsford or Ed Hart.

So it’s clear Greg Fischer is continuing to illegally handle those funds.

If this ever gets to court? A judge looks at it and says, “Uh, you corrected other problems but not these glaring issues backed up with a paper trail? You’re a Steve Henry-style criminal.”

It’s time for Jack Conway to appoint a special prosecutor in this case so the Kentucky State Police Special Investigations Unit can dig in.

Once again, this is why Greg Fischer wanted to be mayor. For the socialite photo opportunities. In the “newspaper” that will run an op-ed this week about how the GOP “must convince young people it’s the party of options.” [V-T]

So now the news of Amazon building a massive distribution center in Jeffersonville is more than speculation? [FOX41]

What? The Democratic co-sponsor of the gambling bill is employed by a horse track co-owner? You don’t say. And that’s why the gambling bill is dead in the water as it currently exists. R.J. Palmer is just the latest kink in the chain. [John Cheves]

No, this Democratic teabagger girl is not going to beat Reggie Meeks. So please stop asking about it. [WFPL]

We don’t love much about Madonna Flood but her “Doing Our Part from the Heart” campaign is something we can all appreciate and support. Note: we didn’t publish the photos she sent this year because they were filled with nothing but products that are basically the reason America is fat as a house. But that doesn’t mean her project isn’t terrific. [WLKY]

Greg Fischer first found out what Pecha Kucha is more than a year ago at 21C. The same night he broke a sweat when he realized he would have to speak to Jake if he wanted to get near Gill Holland and other community leaders. So he just sat on a couch by himself for 45 minutes. Oh, about Pecha Kucha… turns out he’s now having his own little funtimes party with a cash bar in Metro Hall on the 21st. You can come to your own conclusions. [Consuming Louisville]

What? Now Bowman Field may be keeping all those trees? Funny how that worked out. [WHAS11]

This has little to do with Louisville but a Johnny Cash museum is planned for Nashville. Which gives you more reason to visit a town that’s both smaller than Louisville and with better leadership. [Business First]

Jerry Abramson’s (remember him?) former Housing Director is set to go on trial in May. We predict the mainstream will protect her superiors at all costs. [WAVE3]

Speaking of the mainstream ignoring a massive scandal… don’t forget that a massive state government audit revealed all kinds of corruption, millions of wasted dollars and basically no direction in the Beshear Administration. It was quickly covered up (literally 30 minutes after it was release) by a press conference about gambling. [Page One]

Guess who is cutting Greg’s nuts off, like we told you earlier?

I’m going to excerpt heavily from this Dan Klepal story and you’ll see why:

Hart said he was drawn into the complaint because of Fischer attorney Jennifer Moore’s response to Morrison’s complaint, dated Jan. 11, saying “it is clear” that Hart and his business partner Bruce Lundsford “intended to contribute to the (Fischer) general and primary election accounts.”

-SNIP-

Hart says he and the other donors wrote the checks to Fischer’s campaign account only after being instructed to do so by the mayor’s chief fundraiser, Tommy Elliott.

Hart attached five exhibits as proof of his claim:

Three emails from Elliott and Christy Brown, co-chairs of Fischer’s inauguration committee, soliciting a $10,000 donation for table sponsorship at the inaugural gala. Those emails are dated in November or early December, and say one common way to raise the money is to organize a group of donors.

-SNIP-

A Dec. 21 email from Elliott’s private account, directing donors from Hart’s group to write checks to “Greg Fischer for Mayor” instead of the inaugural fund. There is no explanation in that email as to why Elliott wanted the checks made out that way.

-SNIP-

“If … we were making contributions to retire Mayor Fischer’s campaign debt rather than to the inauguration, why were we listed as host sponsors of the inauguration (especially considering that none of our checks ended up in the inaugural account)?” Hart’s letter to the registry says. “This is further proof that we were solicited to provide funds to support the inauguration, not Mayor Fischer’s campaign.”

-SNIP-

“Rather than admitting our contributions were used for the wrong purpose (whether unintentional or not), you have instead mounted a spurious defense to a complaint on this matter brought before the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance,” Hart’s letter to the mayor says. “Essentially, your defense consists of accusing me and the other individuals in our group of donors of not telling the truth.

“Although I had every intention of dropping this entire matter had you returned the money, I do not feel I can continue to allow you to distort the facts at the expense of my reputation. I ask you again to return our donations, and also to stop your false statements about my intentions with respect to those donations.”

Go immediately read the entire story.

And then ask yourself why Greg Fischer continues to believe he can continue to pull this sort of crap.

Or ask yourself why Jennifer Moore was dumb enough to get involved.

You can think what you want about Bruce Lunsford. You can say what you want about Ed Hart. But absolutely no one will tell you they’re not completely, brutally honest 24/7.

If I was Greg Fischer, I’d resolve this right away and apologize. I’d close my campaign account immediately, absorbing the minimal debt. I’d quit lying to the KREF. I’d think twice about going after former opponents because of childish bitterness. And I’d think twice about trying to intimidate critics. Because there’s more where this came from and he knows it.

Looks like Ed Hart and his folks corrected the record Fischer and Jennifer Moore tried to create. The KREF received a letter and supporting documentation (email trail) that prove Fischer wrong.

How will he try to make this one go away?

We predict he’ll start lashing out soon.

Jon Meyer, Greg Fischer’s inaugural fund treasurer, says one thing in the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance response about Ed Hart and Bruce Lunsford (via Jennifer Moore, Fischer’s attorney):

“Mr. Morrison’s claim is not true. As treasurer for the inauguration account, I have reviewed all of the checks received for the inauguration. Mr. Hart and Mr. Lunsford never made contributions to the inauguration account, and no contribution made to the inauguration account was ever diverted or used for any other purpose. I have attached Mr. Hart’s and Mr. Lunsford’s checks…

As you can see from Mr. Hart’s checks … it is clear that Mr. Hart intended to contribute to the general and primary election accounts. Each check is made payable to “Fischer for Mayor”…

But Ed Hart and Bruce Lunsford say another (as do the series of emails Ed Hart has in his possession): that Tommy Elliott and crew pulled a bait and switch. You can read about it in Dan Klepal’s stories, if you wish.

Never mind that there are emails backing up that the Fischer crew came back to Hart after contributing to the inaugural fund asking him to change his contribution to read to “Fischer for Mayor” with no indication or explanation that their contributions would not be used for the inauguration. In fact, their names were still listed in the inaugural program as sponsors. They were consistently told their contributions, if unused to pay for the event (so up to 2,000 citizens could attend for free), would be directed to charity.

Guess it’s time for Ed Hart to release those emails and to send a supporting letter and documentation to the KREF.

And, finally, after years of us calling him out, Fischer’s folks finally admit that his companies have, indeed, made contributions to his campaigns:

I have reviewed the reports submitted to the Registry by the inaugural, general and primary campaign accounts and note that the contribution and use of the website should have been reported and attributed to the LLC’s “individual members according to their respective ownership interests,” as set forth in the Advisory Opinion. Accordingly, I will amend all appropriate reports to reflect this personal contribution by Mayor Fischer, and will communicate with your office to ensure the amended reports are comlpleted on or before February 7, 2012.

Despite the past protestations from Fischer and his campaigns that no such contributions occurred, they’re finally admitted it. We expect Fischer to amend all of his U.S. Senate and mayoral campaign finance reports.

Meyer goes on:

As treasurer, neither I nor anyone I am aware of has violated any campaign finance law, nor have we intended to do so.

Unfortunately, he and the entire crew are aware. They’ve been aware for years. Particularly about using company resources for Fischer’s campaign benefit. We’ve written about it, Fischer’s talked about it, other outlets have covered it.

It’s also really a shame Morrison decided to meddle in this. I made him aware prior to filing that plans were in the works for a complaint to be filed by a legal team with campaign finance experience and he still felt it was a good idea. While loosely well-intentioned (he’s running for political office, remember), it now makes it unlikely that any campaign finance attorneys at the disposal of Hart and Lunsford will come to his aid.

The Fischer crew pulled a huge bait-and-switch with donors. Here’s a project for you: Take a look at Fischer’s inauguration committee and inauguration sponsors/donors. Cross reference that list – the folks who were solicited for contributions by Tommy Elliot and others for Fischer’s inaugural committee – with Fischer’s actual mayoral campaign account reporting with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance and look what you get.

That’s right – a bunch of people who were told they were contributing to Fischer’s Inauguration. Only to have their contribution used to pay down his campaign debt.

Yesterday, we pointed out that Greg Fischer was caught lying about the shenanigans:

He said unused funds were used for civic purposes at the Community Foundation of Louisville. And that’s what he told inauguration supporters at the time.

Unfortunately for Greg, we told you yesterday that that couldn’t be further from the truth. Because prominent members of Louisville’s business community – Democrats, actually – contributed to Fischer’s inauguration fund (they weren’t campaign supporters) only to have their contributions show up as having gone to Fischer’s campaign to help retire his debt.

There’s also a paper trail backing this up.

And whattya know? Dan Klepal did a big story about it all. Click here to read it. And check the excerpts below:

Businessmen Ed Hart and Bruce Lunsford say $10,000 in contributions that they and five other people gave to sponsor a table at Mayor Greg Fischer’s Inaugural Gala was instead kept by the mayor’s election campaign to repay personal loans he made to the campaign.

Hart wrote a letter Wednesday asking that Fischer return all of the money to the donors so it can be contributed to charity — a request Fischer told a reporter he will “seriously” consider.

Told ya so.

Front page, above the fold, even:

Fischer counters that Hart and Lunsford wrote their checks to the campaign account and should have known that meant the campaign could use the money however it wanted.

“These are smart guys,” Fischer said. “They’ve been around the political world.”

Like we explained to you, it was a bait-and-switch and there’s an email trail to back it up. Greg Fischer is yet again lying.

Dan Klepal backs that up:

And e-mails obtained by The Courier-Journal clearly show that the donor solicitation was for inaugural events. In addition, an inaugural program lists all seven donors as being “Inaugural Host Sponsors,” which required $1,000 contributions.

Fischer called that acknowledgement a “discrepency.”

Elliott wrote in an email on Dec. 13 to a member of Hart’s staff handling the fundraising that the checks should be made out to “Greg Fischer Mayoral Inauguration.”

But eight days later, Elliott sent another e-mail asking that “everyone could write (checks) to Greg Fischer for Mayor.”

From Bruce Lunsford:

“It bothers me that somebody who has substantial means would … use his power and position to get money and pay back campaign debt,” said Lunsford

That’s coming from Bruce – a Fischer supporter – so you know the business community is more than outraged.

But the newspaper on Wednesday obtained an invitation to a Fischer fundraiser held in Lexington on Nov. 29 — at the home of Insight Communications lobbyist David Whitehouse.

When asked about the event, Fischer initially called the fundraiser a “reception” and said, “I did not solicit money there.” He also said that his campaign “did not send (the invitations) out.”

When it was pointed out that the invitations say “Paid for by Greg Fischer for Mayor,” Fischer responded: “I did not see that and I do not know that.”

Greg Fischer doesn’t even have the balls to take responsibility for his own campaign’s actions. Disputing, attacking, obfuscating when the facts are placed right in front of his face.

There you have it. Really – be sure to read Klepal’s piece. Let it sink in.

Note to Fischer: You’re welcome, Greg. I told you I wouldn’t let this one get swept under the rug. You knew this was a big deal when your face turned red and you stormed off.

The most interesting thing people tell me, though? It’s that as Greg was leaving, he stopped to speak with Bruce Lunsford, who was seated at an outside table. I can’t stop laughing about that. Because I’m sure Bruce was gritting his teeth. No love lost there.

But about the 12th. Everyone in the press started getting suspicious that day because Jackie Green was out of character and seemingly nervous. He did things that caused me to raise an eyebrow. Like sending me this email:

Subject: thanks for your tireless work, Jake
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:45:19 -0400
From: Jackie Green
To: Jake The ‘Ville Voice

you are a Louisville treasure.
jlg

–
Jackie Green

On its face, the email was a nice gesture and I thanked him (also told him he was crazy for thinking I’m a treasure). But that was seriously out of character for the man. Because 90% of the communication I’d had with him up until that point had been of the challenging sort where he spoke at me like I was part of the problem. Clearly something had changed. Turns out, he’d sent several members of the press and various supporters similar emails. Guess it was to butter them up for what was to come.

Just find it all rather interesting.

Here’s a refresher:

Elliot Greenebaum, the guy who created that spot and most/all of Fischer’s ads during the senate race, has a new project called Republican Sex and Marriage Advice.

He says he wants to do his part by satirizing the Republican Party and plans to release two or three videos each week.

Here’s one of the videos:

And take a look at the, ahem, interesting logo he’s created for the shorts:

Fischer also claimed his business record was clean. But reality has it that Fischer’s companies were fined by OSHA for unsafe working conditions on a number of occasions. Not to mention the sexual harassment case and settlement and the other snafus.

I thought it’d be interesting to take a trip back to 2008 to review some of the campaign ads from the senate race. The first is a spot from Bruce Lunsford, Fischer’s Democratic opponent in the race, hitting him on most of the above issues:

The ad came only after Fischer launched several nasty attack ads of his own. And those same issues are resurfacing in 2010.

Peep some of Fischer’s old attack ads and news stories about his questionable campaign activity after the jump…

In 2008 Greg Fischer hired an actress to further falsehoods about Bruce Lunsford:

And then Fischer hypocritically attacked Lunsford for contributing to Republicans:

Remember when Fischer distributed corrupt and misleading campaign material implying that he’d been endorsed by Barack Obama?

Maybe you recall when Fischer was kicked out of his polling location for breaking the law:

At least when we accept advertising from a candidate it appears on our site and in plain view. [Barefoot & Progressive]

At 5:03 P.M. yesterday, Chris Thieneman’s campaign manager sent this out in a statement: Due to an unforeseen emergency, Chris Thieneman will not be holding a press conference tomorrow morning. Chris looks forward to sharing his vision for Louisville’s economic future, and will be delivering his plan at a time and date to be announced shortly. We hope all is well with Thieneman. [Media Advisory]

The Courier-Journal just got around to mentioning some endorsements Greg Fischer got a week ago. [C-J]

Last night David Tandy rejected the endorsement of bigot Frank Simon and his Freedom’s Heritage Forum: “My entire political career has been about bringing people together,” said Tandy.  “I cannot accept the endorsement of any organization that works to exclude anyone from the political process.  This entire campaign is about bringing every citizen of Louisville together to create better, more vibrant and more inclusive communities; a vision that organization does not share. My Christian values are extremely important to me,” said Tandy.  “But my Christian values teach that every individual has a voice, that every person is entitled to equal rights and opportunities and that any organization which chooses to discriminate based on race, gender, nationality or sexual orientation has no place in my campaign.” Standing up to bigots isn’t easy, so here’s hoping you tell Tandy you like what he’s done. [Press Release]

Mike O’Connell rejected Simon’s endorsement, as well: “It has come to my attention that your organization, Freedom’s Heritage Forum, has endorsed my candidacy for Jefferson County Attorney. And, I reject that endorsement and ask that you immediately remove my name from any of your materials. Along with many endorsements, I have been endorsed by CFAIR, the PAC of the Fairness Campaign. When the Fairness Ordinance was pending before the Louisville Metro Council, I testified in favor of its passage. I am a firm supporter of the Fairness Ordinance and all of the civil rights protections provided to the citizens of Louisville Metr.” [Press Release & Letter]

On May 14, 2008 in response to an ad run by Bruce Lunsford, here’s what Greg Fischer had to say: “I don’t enjoy having to point out this discrepancy. But when a candidate for public office stands before a statewide audience on live TV and says something that is blatantly false, I think you have to point that out.” I tend to agree with him, don’t you? [Flashback]

Jerry Abramson’s office is still pretending that everything is puppies and rainbows post-Metro Government audit. Unfortunately for Jerry, if changes had been made, we wouldn’t still be having problems.  And why did David Tandy look like he was falling asleep during Crit Luallen’s appearance before the council? [WFPL & Press Release]

State Auditor of Public Accounts Crit Luallen even said the audit needed to go deeper because there are other problems. So let’s quit playing pat-a-cake and acting like nothing has gone on in Louisville. [C-J]