Dickinson Helps Binder; Gordon Fox Cries Foul

Soon after learning from Ted Nesi that South Kingstown Rep. Spencer Dickinson invested another $3,820 in a somewhat brazen attempt of defeating his political enemy House Speaker Gordon Fox, we learn that Fox’s campaign has filed yet another complaint with the Board of Elections “against opponent Mark Binder after learning that Rep. Spencer Dickinson donated $3,820.31 to Binder after he had already donated the maximum allowable limit of $1,000,” according to a press release.

“There is nothing independent about his illegal contribution to the Binder campaign,” said Fox spokesperson Bill Fischer in the statement. “This is a clear case of collusion between Rep. Dickinson and the Binder campaign and it violates state law. This campaign has a pattern of complete disregard for the law. At this point voters should be extremely skeptical about Mr. Binder’s ability to serve.”

Update: Peter Kerwin, who works for Binder, sent along this statement:

Spencer Dickinson gave the Binder campaign a generous contribution of $1,000.00.  Beyond that, any expenditure made by Mr. Dickinson was never approved of, authorized or sought by the Binder campaign.  Rep. Dickinson clearly has strong feelings about the Speaker’s corrosive influence on the political process in Rhode Island and the Speaker Fox clearly does not like to have his authority challenged.

The Fox campaign seems to be working on the theory that any expenditure made by anyone who doesn’t like Gordon Fox must be directly connected to the Binder campaign.  That is absurd on its face, as is this latest attempt to distract voters from Gordon Fox’s central role in the 38 Studios debacle, which is back in the news and apparently causing heartburn among the insiders running the Fox campaign.  The fact that 3 of the 5 people who were in the room with Gordon Fox and Michael Corso when the 38 Studios deal got hatched were named in the lawsuit filed by the state yesterday.  It’s been a rough week for the Fox campaign, but making phony complaints with Board of Elections isn’t going to make people forget that Gordon Fox hung the people of Rhode Island out to dry on the 38 Studios deal.

The press release from Fox went on to read:

This is the fourth complaint that the Fox campaign has filed in the past week involving contributions and expenditures surrounding the Binder campaign. Most recently, the Fox campaign reported Mr. Binder to the state Board of Elections for not reporting $2,000 of television advertising in his most recent campaign finance report.

“Mr. Binder has established a clear track record of disregarding campaign finance laws,” Fischer said. “Mr. Dickinson is skirting the law by making additional contributions to the Binder campaign.”

 

Correction: The original version of this story implied that Dickinson donated the $3,820 directly to Mark Binder. That was incorrect.