Johnny Mack Is in the Frying Pan

Yes, our Johnny Mac is in the frying pan, and the question on the lips of many is: Will he fall into the fire? Think what you wish about Attorney General Steve Marshall, no one has similar criticism for AGA Matt Hart. Make no mistake; Matt Hart is on a mission.

Earlier this week, Hart subpoenaed state lawmakers to provide evidence backing up their expense reports. Call it a fishing expedition if you wish, it's going to be like shooting fish in a barrel when Hart examines the expense reports of many in our legislature. When we asked earlier in the week just how many of our legislators were crooks, we weren't thinking about Hart supplying us with the answer. Yet that's exactly what the Raymond Burr lookalike will be doing.

Hart's investigation into campaign finance fraud begins with a loophole in the state ethics law. The not so airtight law states that expense reports must itemize all expenditures over $100.00. Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn't it?

However, many members of our legislature have found a loophole in the law. Simply charge what they want, be it $500.00 or $5,000.00 each period, then note the payment to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, whatever. Slimeily slippery, isn't it?

Now would you like to guess which of all our state senators and representatives has the most unitemized expenses listed as payments to charge cards? Didn't the blog's title give it away? 

Yes, our Johnny Mack is rapidly approaching the fire...

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Since Rep. Morrow's expense reports could hide so much, or even so little, is there any way of predicting what may be found during a more thorough reckoning of Johnny Mack's campaign spending? Yes, in fact, we can offer you some tidbits right now. From AL.com:

Between January 2013 and December 2015, Morrow charged more than $56,000 to his campaign credit cards, none of which he itemized. In 2015 alone, he spent $25,238 using the credit card pass-through trick, which is all the more remarkable as 2015 wasn't an election year.

...the biggest three categories Morrow reported were "Transportation" ($6,638), "Lodging" ($3,691) and "Food" ($9,159). In 2015, the state reimbursed Morrow $12,138.45 for official expenses.

Conclusions? We're leaving those to our readers. How will this affect Johnny Mack's chances of defeating Doc Larry? We're holding our noses, er, final thoughts on that one.