UPDATE: Cong. Cand. Vernon Parker No Longer To "Defend Sheriff Joe"; Still Needs To File Delinquent Reports

On Tuesday, Arizona's Politics reported on Congressional Candidate Vernon Parker's failure to file at least four disclosure reports with the IRS, detailing contributions to and expenditures by his "Defend Sheriff Joe" political organization; on Wednesday, DSJ filed a termination report with the IRS.  The delinquent filings were not concurrently filed.  Parker - the former Mayor of Paradise Valley - is running for Republican nomination for the open Congressional seat in CD9.

Yesterday's report back-dated the termination date to January 19, 2012.  As Defend Sheriff Joe raised money for the 2012 election cycle - sending out fundraising e-mails at least through August 17, 2011, posting on Twitter through September 2, 2011, and maintaining a funds-seeking website through today - the two reports last year and the 1st quarter 2012 report (through the Jan. 19 termination) are still required to be filed, and are still delinquent.

Neither Treasurer Kelly Lawler nor Chairman Vernon Parker have responded to Arizona's Politics' requests for information; director Gary Bae no longer works at Nathan Sproul's Lincoln Strategy Group, and no effort was made to contact him/Lincoln.  (Ms. Lawler was reached by telephone on Tuesday, and she promised to call back after checking her files.  She did mention the other Arpaio-related effort she is involved in, and we did publish a report on JoePAC.)

Parker's last fundraising e-mail for Defend Sheriff Joe (received by Arizona's Politics) on August 17, 2011, elucidated the organization's three goals for 2012: "First, ensure Sheriff Joe is reelected. Second, ensure Barack Obama is a one-term president. Third, return a Republican majority to the U.S. Senate."  Based on the fundraising prowess displayed by DSJ earlier, some people responded to those goals with online contributions and checks; they still need to be disclosed.




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