Taylor to face ethics hearing over campaign contributions

<p>The State Ethics Commission has decided there is enough evidence to consider allegations that former Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor's gubernatorial campaign took illegal contributions and did not fully identify donors.</p><p>The commission found probable cause Thursday to hold a hearing on 10 counts, most of them claiming Taylor did not adequately identify contributions from political action committees.</p><p>The commission also agreed to hold a hearing on allegations that Taylor's campaign illegally took $9,000 from a Valdosta company for the 2006 gubernatorial primary. The legal limit is $5,000 from one company or affiliated companies for the primary, and $5,000 for the general election.</p><p>But the commission dismissed more than 40 other complaints against Taylor, who ran unsuccessfully against Gov. Sonny Perdue last year.</p><p>Taylor's campaign took $4,000 from Ambling Companies Inc., a Valdosta real estate development company for the primary, and $5,000 from Ambling Development Co. LLC, of the same address, also for the primary election, according to campaign disclosure reports.</p><p>Ambling Multifamily Development Co. and Ambling Properties LLC, two Valdosta companies with the same address, also gave $10,000 to Perdue's campaign in 2004 and 2005, according to campaign disclosure reports. However, half was for the primary and half for the general election.</p><p>The allegations against Taylor were filed by former Gwinnett County Republican Chairman Buzz Brockway. Robert Highsmith, a lawyer who previously served as a legal adviser to Perdue, helped Brockway prepare the complaints. Some of the complaints date back to 1998, when Taylor first ran for lieutenant governor.</p><p>Taylor's attorney, A. Lee Parks, called the complaints "an election-year shotgun effort to audit seven years of financial disclosure reports for partisan reasons."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cda0b4)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/4/102174