NASHVILLE (AP) - The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance will determine whether to fine Gov. Bill Haslam and state Sen. Stacy Campfield.
The registry earlier voted to impose modest fines on three Democratic legislators who failed report political contributions. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner of Nashville was assessed $250. State Reps. Joe Armstrong, D-Knoxville, and G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, were fined $50 each.
The Knoxville News Sentinel ((http://bit.ly/18Vraez) reported Turner came before the registry on Wednesday and told members he was embarrassed by finding he had not reported almost $20,000 in PAC contributions by not paying attention to paperwork.
"I deserve a fine," Turner said.
The Registry put on its Oct. 9 agenda discussion of a complaint filed against Haslam by former state Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester. He contends the governor should disclose personal payments made to veteran political operative Tom Ingram.
Campfield initially listed and then deleted a $1,000 "in-kind" donation from former Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, who gave $100 to Campfield's opponent.
The issue was discussed at the Wednesday meeting. Chairman Henry Fincher, a former state representative from Cookeville, said the board should consider penalizing Campfield, reported The Tennessean.
"That lets him know that it ain't funny," Fincher said. "It may be calculated, and he may want some publicity. Well, OK, come on."
Campfield's notation was about Ragsdale's $100 contribution to Richard Briggs - an announced opponent of Campfield in the 2014 Republican primary election.
Campfield said he still thinks the donation is worth $1,000 to his re-election campaign and could be correctly listed as an in-kind contribution.
"I didn't want to create any issues of concern, so I just cleared it off there so they wouldn't be confused," Campfield said in an interview. "T hey sent me a letter and I said, 'OK, fine; no big deal' ... I'm not going to argue with them."
Most of the 51 officials cited by the registry have satisfactorily explained omissions and citations have been dropped.