Nevada's CD-2 race just got another paper trail. On July 8, the Federal Election Commission sent a formal letter to David Flippo's congressional campaign.
The message was blunt. Fix your numbers. Explain your loans. And do it by August 12, or risk an audit.
What The Letter Actually Says
The FEC flagged two problems in Flippo's April quarterly report, which covers January through March of this year. First, the math on his summary pages doesn't add up. The cycle-to-date totals in Column B don't match what they should be based on his previous filings. The FEC wants an amended report to fix it.
Second, and more interesting, the FEC says Flippo's campaign left out required details about a loan. Federal rules are clear. If a candidate loans money to his own campaign, the campaign has to say where that money came from.
Personal savings? A bank loan? A home equity line? A credit card? The public has a right to know. Flippo's campaign didn't say.
The letter puts it plainly:
“It is important to note that ‘personal funds' is strictly defined by Commission Regulations.”
In other words, Flippo can't just say “it's my own money” and leave it there. He has to prove it.
The Datwyler Problem, Again
The man responsible for these filings is treasurer Thomas Datwyler. NN&V has written about him before.
Datwyler has a long paper trail of FEC trouble going back years, including tens of thousands of dollars in fines tied to other Republican campaigns for failing to properly report large contributions on time. He's also the treasurer of American Honor PAC, the outside group funded entirely by Flippo's own brother that ran attack ads against James Settelmeyer during the primary.
A campaign treasurer with a documented history of late and incomplete filings, now sitting on another incomplete filing, is not exactly a coincidence conservatives should shrug off.
Sloppy paperwork either means real carelessness with donor money, or it means something is being kept quiet on purpose.
Show Me The Money
Here's why the loan question actually matters. Flippo has self-funded the overwhelming majority of his campaign. Public filings reviewed by NN&V earlier this year showed roughly $760,000 of his campaign's money came from Flippo's own loans, while actual outside donors kicked in only a small fraction of that.
Just 3 of 56 itemized contributions came from inside CD-2 itself.
So where does three-quarters of a million dollars in “personal funds” come from for a candidate whose hobby store — the small business that's been central to his public biography — has reportedly closed its doors?
That's the question Flippo's campaign has now been formally asked to answer in writing, under penalty of federal enforcement. And so far, they haven't.
It's fair to ask whether the vague loan disclosure is sloppiness or strategy. A campaign that drags its feet past a primary and toward a general election doesn't face real consequences until the FEC forces the issue.
What Critics Say
To be fair, paperwork problems like these are common in campaign finance.
Amended reports get filed all the time, and an RFAI letter isn't itself proof of wrongdoing.
Flippo's supporters will likely point out that plenty of first-time federal candidates stumble on FEC formatting rules, and that Datwyler's past fines involved other candidates' committees, not necessarily evidence of anything happening here.
What Happens Next
Flippo's campaign has until August 12 to respond. If they don't, the FEC says an audit could follow.
Conservative voters in CD-2 who care about transparency and stewardship of donor money should watch this closely. Keep an eye on whether the campaign amends the report honestly and promptly — or waits until the deadline, or past it, to finally answer where three-quarters of a million dollars actually came from.
Read the FEC letter:
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