Pheng Thao Responds To Questions About His Campaign Contributions, Does Not Indicate When He Will Correct Issue

Pheng Thao did respond to me after I posted about the issues with his campaign contributions.

I had sent him an email on 04/15/2022 to the email address he had opted to include on his campaign finance disclosure form.

After not hearing back from him for three days I posted about the issue I had noticed. He then responded, indicating that he rarely checked that email any more. Regarding the substance of the campaign contribution issue he said, “Candidates cannot accept contributions from ‘corporations’ as you stated but can accept them from certain ones. These ‘corporations’ are not in the category that my campaign couldn’t accept donations from, they were in the category that my campaign could accept donations from.”

I emailed him backing and asked him, “Could you please explain what category the contributions fall into that would make them legal for you to accept?”

He responded by saying, “Businesses may make contributions under some circumstances, but the rules vary by the type of business.”

He pointed to guidance regarding contributions from sole-proprietorships, partnerships, and LLCs taxed as sole-proprietorships or partnerships; however, the guidance he quoted clearly states that contributions from those entities has to be reported under the name of the owner or partners, not the business.

I pointed this out and asked him, “why did you opt to list [the contributions] as coming from the businesses instead of from the individuals who own the businesses?”

He has thus far not responded and has not indicated if he is taking steps to correct the reporting issue.

State literature indicates local candidates cannot accept donations from businesses. Donations must be recorded as coming from an individual, a candidate committee, a political action committee, or a political party. They can’t be recorded as coming from businesses. I called the state and confirmed this fact with a state employee.

As I said in my previous post, 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.