The Montgomery Independent, having completed an investigation of Governor Bob Riley, has concluded that Riley may have violated campaign finance laws in 2002 and 2006. According to the Independent‘s reporters, the governor may have tried to conceal corporate donations during both those years, when he was running for office.
This is hardly the first time that the words “Riley” and “election” have appeared together in a suspicious way. Karl Rove is alleged to have been involved in the 2002 Alabama election, when GOP consultant Bill Canary, an adviser to Riley, worked with Rove to bring Governor Don Siegelman to prison on ethics charges.
In that very close election, Alabama Attorney General William Pryor–another of Canary’s clients–clinched Riley’s victory when he declared that unsealing the ballots for a recount would be a crime. The request for a recount came after there was a last-minute switch of several thousand votes in one county from Siegelman to Riley.
The Montgonmery Independent discovered that in 2006, the Riley campaign reported the use of airplanes owned by two corporations as personal “in-kind” donations from the corporations’ presidents. Also listed as a personal donation was the use of an advertising billboard from the president of the ad agency. Together, these donations had a value of over $25,000, significantly exceeding the $500 limit allowed for any one corporation in a single election cycle.
