Less than two weeks ago the story broke that senator Harry Reid used $33,000 of campaign funds for "holiday presents" for big donors. The money was given to Reid's granddaughter, Ryan Elisabeth Reid who supposedly made jewelry that was used for the gifts. On Reid's legal filings with the Federal Election Commission, the expenditures were identified as having been made to "Ryan Elisabeth" with her last name omitted. This clearly helped to hide the link between the senator and his granddaughter. When the story broke, Reid said that he had done nothing wrong, but he quickly reimbursed his campaign for the entire amount paid to his granddaughter. Reid never explained why he was giving all the money back if he had done nothing wrong. Nor did Reid explain why jewelry was purchased from his granddaughter when her career has been as director of a theater company and not in jewelry design or manufacture.
The story got a small bit of coverage in the press and then disappeared. It seems that no one cared enough to follow up on the story. Well, I think that there are some questions that still need to be asked.
1. What are the names of the people who received gifts of jewelry from the Reid campaign?
2. Can we see any of the jewelry made by Ryan Elisabeth that was purchased by the campaign?
It ought to take the Reid campaign less than 30 seconds to provide a list of names of the folks who got the jewelry. A political campaign does not ordinarily give out multi thousand dollar gifts. Lets see if the media can confirm with the supposed recipients that they actually got those gifts.
Once the jewelry was shown to the public, it would also be easy to see whether or not the price paid was a reasonable one or if it was a way to give $33000 to Reid's granddaughter in exchange for jewelry worth only a fraction of that amount.
Where are the people in the media who will follow up on this story?
The story got a small bit of coverage in the press and then disappeared. It seems that no one cared enough to follow up on the story. Well, I think that there are some questions that still need to be asked.
1. What are the names of the people who received gifts of jewelry from the Reid campaign?
2. Can we see any of the jewelry made by Ryan Elisabeth that was purchased by the campaign?
It ought to take the Reid campaign less than 30 seconds to provide a list of names of the folks who got the jewelry. A political campaign does not ordinarily give out multi thousand dollar gifts. Lets see if the media can confirm with the supposed recipients that they actually got those gifts.
Once the jewelry was shown to the public, it would also be easy to see whether or not the price paid was a reasonable one or if it was a way to give $33000 to Reid's granddaughter in exchange for jewelry worth only a fraction of that amount.
Where are the people in the media who will follow up on this story?
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