Joe Driver's January ethics report

State Representative filed his first campaign finance report since pleading guilty to a felony of abusing his office. It is a quick read and has a few interesting entries.

• He hasn't raised any money. Duh. Who would give money to a felon?
• He finally repaid his campaign the $14,000 he claimed he repaid last year. This is due to the amount that was reported by the Associated Press as his double dipping. This amount was much more after the Travis County DAs office investigation.
• He did not report the reimbursement of over $64,000 as a result of the investigation
• He did not report the payment to his attorney for his defense fees

Driver might have a problem. Lucky for him he can pay his defense fees with the money that he stole from his campaign, once he has returned it. Or maybe the $64,000 was simply given to his attorney since the Ethics Commission's lax reporting laws.  Driver only has $11,000 cash on hand and if his defense is more than $75,000 he will have to pay it out of his own pocket. Imagine that.

There is more to this that will require more investigation. I would bet one of his big donors are going to come through and donate money to the felon to cover his defense cost.

No Place but Texas.