By GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer
The former Democratic operative who filed an ethics complaint against Gov. Sonny Perdue’s lawyer said he is taking the case to prosecutors after a legislative panel dismissed his complaint.
“The choices of the leadership have caused the process to fail,” said Edward Chapman, a student who worked as a researcher for the Democratic Party.
A three-panel legislative review board on Wednesday dismissed the case against state Rep. Larry O’Neal, saying the $100,000 tax break he is accused of engineering for the governor occurred too long ago for them to investigate.
Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson said the ethics panel members had simply followed the law, which he said bans them from considering conduct that occurred before Jan. 9, 2006 when the committee was created. In a phone interview, he added the complaint was “nothing more than partisan politics.”
Chapman said the committee was “afraid” of the consequences of an investigation.
“My hope is that by forwarding this request, law enforcement will begin this desperately needed investigation,” he said.
He said he is sending the complaint to the state Attorney General’s office and U.S. Attorney David Nahmias.
Russ Willard, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said the department has yet to receive the complaint. The U.S. Attorney’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson, the target of an earlier ethics complaint tossed by the legislative panel, said the Democratic Party’s attitude is “whine, whine, whine; lose, lose, lose.”
“Go whine to someone else,” he said in a statement. “Mr. Chapman is obviously the pawn of the Democratic Party and willing to do their bidding even after he’s lost repeatedly.”
The complaint alleges that state Rep. Larry O’Neal, a Warner Robins Republican, misused his elected office to benefit Perdue, his client. O’Neal could not immediately be reached for comment.
It centered on a sweeping tax bill O’Neal sponsored in 2005. Part of the legislation was made retroactive to 2004, effectively covering Perdue’s sale of family land in middle Georgia in 2004 and his purchase of property in Florida, near Disney World, from a wealthy Republican developer later that year.
The retroactive provision saved Perdue about $100,000 in state capital gains taxes. Perdue signed the bill into law in April 2005 but has said he did not know he would benefit from it at the time.
