Cover-up? What Did They Know And When Did They Know It?

A few weeks ago, I broke a story about a potentially illegal fundraiser benefiting the GOP House Caucus that featured Congressman Steve Womack, Lt. Governor Mark Darr and many Republican state legislators.  The fundraiser apparently broke numerous federal campaign finance laws and after much debate the House GOP Caucus agreed to return corporate contributions from the event. 

However, according to the Northwest Arkansas Times, Womack, and potentially the GOP House Caucus, knew all along about the violation of federal campaign finance law, and said nothing until my story hit the web.  What did they know and when did they know it?  

From a recent NWA Times editorial about the improper fundraiser:

We know for a fact that the office of 3rd Congressional District Rep. Steve Womack was informed about this breach on the very next day…

Our news department heard about the fundraiser and called Womack’s office to inquire whether the proper rules had been followed. No answer came, but several days later, a Little Rock political blog reported the money raised at the event was being returned.

It seems that if I had never written the story about the potentially illegal fundraiser, Womack and the GOP House Caucus would have kept the money and never told anyone about it. That borders on blatant cover-up.

The Democratic Party of Arkansas weighs in on this issue too:

“Why did Congressman Womack and Rep. Burris remain silent for two weeks after first learning their joint fundraiser with Lt. Gov. Mark Darr wasn’t legal?  Was this a narrowly failed attempt at a cover-up?  There are more questions than answers,” Candace Martin, Democratic Party of Arkansas communications director, said. “Even after Burris acknowledged the wrongdoing, he still parsed his words for days before agreeing to directly return the money in question.  Given these facts, it is imperative now more than ever Burris provide public evidence the returns were actually made.”

Womack and the GOP House Caucus is the "gang that couldn’t shoot straight."   They haven’t been straight with Arkansans and their mishandling of this entire affair turned a one-day story into a two-week ordeal.