Candidate for Ingham Co. Commission fined $1,000 for late campaign finance reporting

FRIDAY, Oct. 16 — A candidate for Ingham County Board of Commissioners has been fined $1,000 after he filed a report on campaign spending three months late — and only after City Pulse reported that he appeared to have violated state law.

Bob Pena, who defeated incumbent Commissioner Thomas Morgan for the Democratic nomination to represent Lansing’s east side, was fined after he was late in reporting thousands of dollars in political donations and expenses.

“We will pay what we need to,” Pena told County Clerk Barb Byrum in a letter alongside late reports for more than $3,200 in contributions. Before he reported it this week, Pena had declared he planned to raise less than $1,000. Records show he passed that mark in July. Reporting in Michigan can be waived at the clerk’s discretion if a candidate declares he will spend and take in less than $1,000 each in a campaign cycle.

Pena didn’t return multiple calls to City Pulse in recent weeks, but his former opponent said today that Pena is going to have to be “better about following the law and paying attention to details” if he’s ever going to “properly do the job of a county commissioner” in Ingham County.

Read more: https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/candidate-for-ingham-co-commission-faces-fines-for-late-campaign-finance-reports,15079