Scranton Newspaper Family's Questionable Campaign Donations to Bob Casey Jr

The blogsphere has long noted how Bob Casey Jr receives questionable advertising support from his hometown newspaper. His opponents have also noted how the MSM seems to ignore them.

But a look into the FEC reports filed by the Casey campaign and gathered at OpenSecrets.Org, show more than Casey's opponents are being ignored by the owners of The Scranton Times-Tribune.

The Lynett family, which owns and operates the Scranton paper, have made huge campaign donations to the Casey campaign. One would think that a multi-generational newspaper family would have developed the notion that journalistic integrity requires some separation from the political process. But, remember folks, they are in Northeast Pennsylvania -- Luzerne, Lackawanna and Pike counties don't exactly scream ethics and integrity when it comes to politics, business, or, apparently, journalism.

So, give them a pass on ignoring a basic precept of professional ethics.

But, even a cursory glance at the information collected from the Casey FEC reports appears to show that the Lynett family and the Casey campaign have already given Casey more than the law permnits for the Primary campaign. The FEC says that the law limits an individual to a maximum campaign donation of:

$2,100 per election to a Federal candidate or the candidate's campaign committee. Notice that the limit applies separately to each election. Primaries, runoffs and general elections are considered separate elections.

But the Casey reports show that, among the about $15,000 which the Scranton newspaper owners shoveled to Casey, George Lynett gave $3,100. He did it on the same day but in two separate checks. And, t it is ALL in the FAMILY. George has a sister, Cecelia Haggerty, in Dunmore. She "only" gave $2,100 -- within the legal limit. But a lawyer named James Haggerty, also in Dunmore, gave Casey $3,100 -- again in two separate checks.

Now technically, if the individuals intended the excess donations to be used for the General Election, this isn't a violation of the law. This is because individuals can donate $2100 for the primary and $2100 for the General Election. (When Casey loses the Primary, he has to give to back. But, if he should defeat Chuck Pennacchio, then he can carry over the excess.) But one wonders, if there was nothing illegal about what they were doing, why did they go to the trouble of dividing the contributions up into separate checks?

Tell me again how Casey is going to be able to call Rick Santorum out on ethics?