With only weeks to go as the countdown to Election Day continues, there are very serious questions about whether Mike Causey is fit to serve as our State Insurance Commissioner.
We've already discussed on this blog his trials and tribulations involving run-ins with Guilford County officials and his direct employment ties to insurance companies, but now there are even more damning reasons why voters would question Causey's fitness to serve in a statewide office in a position that regulates insurance and financial matters.
Since the last posting at this blog, your intrepid blogger has discovered that Mike Causey is embroiled in a major campaign finance scandal involving his current race for Insurance Commissioner. Articles appeared all over the State about it and consequently all over the Internet.
And many of us just learned of a report from earlier this week that Mike Causey has a history of bankruptcy and federal tax liens, according to his hometown news reporter, Travis Fain of the Greensboro News and Record.
Do we need an insurance commissioner who is all twisted up in admitted errors, originally unreported contributions, unlawfully labeled candidate ads, and apparently an illegal reverse raffle being elected to statewide office?
The word on the street is that Mike Causey's attempts at minimizing the true extent of his travails and election law violations are unraveling. He's told his supporters and the press that the problems are much ado about nothing. But the State Board of Elections confirmed to that Greensboro reporter a few days ago that the investigation is actually still open. There is also serious speculation that more and more things are being found, which would explain why a supposed minor administrative procedure has ballooned. A review of Causey's last amended reports even show a discrepancy in the thousands of dollars. It appears more and more that candidate Mike Causey has intentionally downplayed and possibly misled the State Board of Elections and the public about his campaign finance problems. If true, then that's unacceptable. Prediction: Mike Causey is in hot water.
And on the subject of hot water, do we need Mike Causey's brand of doing business -- where he hides his bankruptcy and federal tax liens, declaring them of no use when considering his qualifications for statewide office? According to that Greensboro news reporter, Causey said the issue is 20 years old and is too ancient. Because Mike Causey says he is running as a businessman, it is fair game and very relevant for the public to know that Causey has gone from job to job to job, constantly looking unsuccessfully for election or appointment to political office over the last 20 years, and part of that trek in the business world includes a bankruptcy, prohibition of his selling any real estate during the bankruptcy, and federal tax liens that went unpaid for a lengthy period of time.
The word on the street is that there may be more tax questions for Mike Causey. Stay tuned. Prediction: Mike Causey's hot water is getting hotter.
But that's not the end of it.
The word on the street is, on knowledge and belief, that reports of other improper personal behavior and matters involving other state laws are potentially on the horizon for Mike Causey. Prediction: Who knows? But people are talking.
I suspect that as a sign of his desperation he's going to lob things against the current insurance commissioner as a means of distracting the public from his own issues. That wouldn't surprise anyone. The Bible tells us, of course, "physician, heal thyself" and "first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
Admittedly all candidates for office, challengers and incumbents alike, are scrutinized for many, many things. Some of the scrutiny is warranted. Some of it is not. Some of it is pure politics, and some of it is fiction or partial fiction.
In the case of Mike Causey, however, there are enough legitimate questions about his fitness for office to give voters a reason to pause, and to ask:
Do we need to elect a challenger insurance commissioner with this much baggage and so many unanswered questions and growing scandals?
Isn't it instructive for all of us that voters have already rejected Mike Causey three times before for this same office in 1992, 1996 and in 2000?
There is much to learn about Mike Causey before he could ever be deemed fit to serve in elected office.
References:
http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/allegations_of_campaign_violations_persist_in_insurance_commissioner_race
http://www.news-record.com/blog/147008/entry/154461
http://beforeyouvoteihaveaquestionforyou.blogspot.com/2012/07/mike-causey-accused-of-breaking-rules.html
http://beforeyouvoteihaveaquestionforyou.blogspot.com/2012/07/should-we-elect-insurance-company.html
