Newly Elected Board Of Education Member Pheng Thao Appears To Have Violated Campaign Finance Laws

A reader had asked if I was going to post the campaign finance documents for the Appleton Area School District Board of Education candidates. You can download those all below:

An interesting item of note, newly elected Board of Education member Pheng Thao appears to have violated campaign finance law by accepting donations from businesses, including Passion, MMMS Medical Taxi, Core’s Lounge, KKY Pool Hall, and Hmong Express. The state website and its campaign finance guidance booklet make it very clear that local candidates cannot accept donations from corporations. I also verified this fact over the phone with a state employee.

“CAMPAIGN FINANCE OVERVIEW Local Candidate Committees” (July 2019) page7 (https://ethics.wi.gov/Resources/CF%20Overview%20-%20Local%20Candidate%20Committees.pdf)

I emailed Pheng Thao about this on Friday and also emailed Clara Kopplinger on Monday morning, asking her if AASD had noticed the issue and if they were aware of any steps Mr. Thao was taking to correct the issue.

I have not heard back from either Mr. Thao or Ms. Kopplinger.

Although this issue is not so serious that it would overturn the results of the election, I don’t think it unreasonable to expect candidates to promptly correct violations of the law.

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