Jones Calls For McMahan Investigation

By Jerry Bohnen, NewsRadio 1000 KTOK
Thursday, October 5, 2006

The revelations of huge numbers of campaign contributions by employees of State Auditor and Inspector Jeff McMahan to his re-election bid prompt his Republican opponent Gary Jones to call for an official investigation.

"I think it's time for some type of investigation," said Jones in an interview with KTOK News. "I don't know whether it's Ethics or whether it's some other type of investigation. But I think there are some very serious allegations here which need to be looked at."

Jones, the former State Republican party chairman and former candidate for State Auditor and Inspector is referring to a review of the contributions published this week by The McCarville Report Online. In the series of reports, it was revealed the 164 persons who work at the State Auditor's office had made 581 separate contributions to McMahan's campaign in the past five years. More than 180 of those contributions were made in the past year as McMahan started his re-election campaign.

"The large number of contributions and particularly the pattern of contributions I think is something that is very disturbing and quite obviously needs to be looked at," continued Jones, who suggests it appears the workers are under pressure to give money to McMahan's campaign. He wants an official state investigation "to come in and look at and get people under oath and get their testimony because some very serious allegations have been made."

He went on to say the problem is the pattern of contributions: "When you look and see that there are large amounts of contributions made on particular days and then you find out those days correspond with required meetings that the employees would have to attend----." Jones promised if he is elected he would prohibit contributions by State Auditor's employees to his campaign. "That way you would remove any doubt," he said.

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