A couple of weeks ago, I reported on David Flippo, a MAGA congressional candidate running in Nevada. Flippo has a history of questionable behavior, including claiming stolen valor and, more recently, falsely claiming that a dead woman had donated the maximum amount to his campaign.
Well, Flippo did it again.
In his latest campaign report, he has a Val Sheldon listed as having donated $143.56 on October 13th. The problem is that the only person who matches the description of Val Sheldon in the finance report died in 2019. There is no evidence she made a bequest before she died. There is also no evidence the campaign got written consent from Bret Sheldon, who donated, to reattribute his donation.
When contacted by The Washington Sun, his campaign finance manager got rather snippy and defensive:
Asked whether the Flippo campaign attributed the donation to someone dead, Thomas Datwyler, Flippo’s campaign treasurer, told The Sun he was “looking into it.”
“Of course, the liberal media is at it again: a $130 contribution under question, in a campaign with over 5,500 individual contributions and $2 million raised for this campaign,” Datwyler added in a statement to The Sun.
If it happened just once, Flippo might have gotten away with claiming a clerical error. But now it seems more like a pattern of misconduct. I wouldn’t be surprised if they find more. Either way, Flippo is looking at, at best, a serious fine, because what his campaign did is illegal.
