The big buzz on the streets is the scandalous $58,500, plus or minus, in unreported political contributions from the Eastern Band of Cherokee [Native Americans]. Evidently the record keeping wasn’t very good, and $4000 in checks were allegedly voided because candidates never cashed them. Some candidates show contributions the tribe’s records don’t, and some checks the tribe says were cashed remain “unaccounted for.” $48,000 in contributions to the Democrat Party and $5000 for the Republican Party do not show up in the Cherokee records. Two candidates of the R-persuasion refused contributions, noting gambling to be a large revenue generator on the res, and not wanting their campaigns financed with ill-gotten gain.

Local talk radio celebrity Matt Mittan said the media was taking the wrong spin. As North Carolina is a pay-to-play state, $58,500 was going to get the tribe nowhere. Another take would be if campaign finance reporting is so complex that governing bodies can’t even abide by it (McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform being a poster child for government run-amok since no two lawyers seem to agree on any part of it), we need to implement a government program to oversee reporting. It can spearhead a new paradigm into the Twenty-First Century by requiring detailed reports on the initial reports with reports to track each level of reporting. Needless to say, it will be for the children.