Complaints Against Rep. Morgan Dismissed

A pair of federal and state elections complaints filed by a Warwick man against Rep. Patricia Morgan have been dismissed and the District 26 representative chalked the whole issue up to an old checkbook.

The complaints alleged Morgan was violating campaign finance laws that prohibit the use of fictitious names when she made several donations under the name Patricia Mulligan, her maiden name, at the same time she made donations under the name Patricia Morgan.

The donations occurred between 2007 and 2010 and totaled about $2,500 in all, though she never exceeded any personal limits even when counting both sets.

Mulligan said she plainly told both the Federal Elections Commission and the state Board of Elections that she wrote Morgan on the required forms accompanying the checks.

But, “I had this checkbook left over from when I was married a long time ago,” she said in an interview. “I rarely used those until they ran out.”

Those checks have her Patricia Mulligan name, she said, and that’s how her maiden name became associated with the contributions in question.

The same thing even happened with her own campaign and a Republican town committee, she said, which recorded her filings under Mulligan instead of Morgan.

In what appeared to be well-meaning workers trying to be diligent, “they said that was the name on the check and I said ‘well, you knew it was me,’” Morgan said. “It’s the same person. It’s me.”

Morgan said the old checks, which had been hanging around since her 2000 divorce, were sparingly used, such as when she made a donation at church.

“I use electronic bill pay,” she said. “I rarely use checks. I don’t like checks.”

The complaint was filed by Anthony Sinapi, a Roger Williams Law Student who cited the 1971 Federal Election Campaign act, which prohibits people from making contributions in the name of another person or with a fictitious name, as the basis for his complaint.

Sinapi alleged that the contributions were made to “obfuscate the true source of her campaign funds” but Morgan said the quick dismissals of the complaints showed they were “a specious complaint by someone who has way too much time on his hands or else is being paid to do it.”

Sinapi said he is motivated by his belief in “truth and accountability to the point where people simple that I ‘like to fight.’ In reality, I loathe having to go to such lengths to attempt to obtain things that should have been present from the beginning.”

To that end, it’s unlikely there will be any more donations from Patricia Mulligan. Morgan said the last check has been used up and they’re all gone.