Feinstein Swindled

Some 200 California Democrat clients have fallen victim to a Madoff in their midst. Could it turn the state light blue? It 's said that word-of-mouth advertising is the best kind. It certainly worked for Ms. Kinde Durkee for more than 12 years. It would still be working if she hadn 't helped herself to some of her clients ' bank accounts once too often. Durkee 's nearly 200 clients weren ' t stores and small factories. They were California Democratic office holders, candidates, and committees. For all those years she was the go-to person to be treasurer for any Democrat 's campaign accounts. Campaign treasurers serve as bankers and accountants for campaigns and see to the many complex state and federal reports required. There are few experts at this arcane craft in California. She was the best known and was trusted. It isn 't yet known how much of her donors ' money she used for personal expenses, but it was a lot. It is alleged that as much as $ 1 million is missing collectively from client accounts …. one bank in Southern California and it says it won 't release the remaining funds unless the clients sign "hold harmless" agreements to protect the bank. To make matters more complicated, Durkee used a Ponzi-like technique to keep all the balls in the air. If she helped herself to a few thousand dollars from Officeholder A 's account, she would transfer that much from Officeholder B ' s into A 's to make up for it. And so forth. Garry South, a veteran Democrat consultant, told the Wall Street Journal that "… she might have removed millions of dollars from Democratic campaign coffers of 2012 and it might not be easy to replace ."….. It 's not often that the California Democrats are in disarray, but they are right now … (Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org …