Carrey Banks fined for election violation

By Brian Kirwin | Monday, October 25th, 2010 | Politics

Virginia Beach School Board candidates should be able to handle a few things without paying fines.

Financial reporting is one of them.

Carrey Banks is a new candidate who is trying to get elected to the Virginia Beach School Board touting his commitment to “integrity and transparency” on his Facebook page.

Apparently, he hasn’t had the “integrity” to be “transparent” enough to explain on his site why he was fined for a “late filing penalty” two months into his campaign.

As of this writing, Banks, who makes big money from the taxpayers while being employed at Norfolk State University, is the only candidate in Virginia Beach who can’t run a campaign without breaking campaign finance law and paying a fine for it.

At the time of his fine, he had only raised a pitiful six thousand dollars, and still couldn’t report it legally. How in the world can he handle the 600+ million dollar Education budget in Virginia Beach?

The filing deadlines are pretty straightfoward stuff. The forms required are simple one-sheeters. If you can’t follow campaign finance law in Virginia, you’re either not trying, not caring, or not capable…or all three.

Back in the days when the press actually did reporting, these things were told to voters in the newspaper. The internet makes these things fairly transparent.

At least more transparent than some people who hope to be public officials.

For my vote, I’d chose someone who will oversee a 600+ million dollar budget who can at least file campaign accounting without breaking the law.

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