Ethics Commission fines Senator Estes $52,000.

The Texas Ethics Commission, the official watchdog for the state, is FINALLY sinking their teeth into those who violate campaign spending laws. Case in point State Senator Craig Estes who was fined $52,000, but was reduced to $17,000 after he amended his reports.

$17,000 is a huge fine by the Commission and just might be a record. Unfortunately, Estes is allowed to pay this fine with his campaign donations. The $17,000 is two steps forward and one step backwards, but it is progress nevertheless.

Estes was fined for a number of violations of reporting campaign expenditures. The rules for filing are not hard, in fact they are very easy, so easy a caveman can do it. Expenditures from campaign cash must disclose the amount paid, who was paid, when it was paid, and include a description for what was paid. It is just that simple.

Estes was fined for hiding $45,800 in expenditures behind credit cards and $30,841 behind reimbursements to himself. He also paid over $12,000 to his own company which is also against ethics rules. And he paid over $82,000 for "Travel Expense" to "Airplane Account -- Chase Bank" with an address of his own company.

In his response to the complaint Estes claims ignorance and agreed to file an amended report to avoid the $52,000 fine. What is most disturbing about this, besides his ignorance, is the amount Estes pays for airplane travel. $82,000 in a 6 month period is a large amount of money to be paying for travel to Gunnison Colorado and other places for official business.

Maybe a little more research is necessary.