Does consultant Robert Burns illegally funnel campaign spending into a ‘news’ website?

Robert Burns

Should a third-party “news” site run by political consultant Robert Burns be counted as a political expenditure?

Rep. Randy Fine, a Palm Bay Republican, called on the Florida Division of Elections to look into how The Space Coast Rocket gets financed.

“This page specializes in writing ‘articles’ that disparage, often using slander, of the opponents of Mr. Burns’ clients and writing glowing – but often false – pieces praising his clients, under the guise that his page is some kind of neutral third party, like a newspaper,” Fine wrote.

“It is a product that he offers his clients. The Space Coast Rocket has no obvious source of income – it does not solicit advertising or sponsorships and is not subscription-based. Yet it has spent $7,919 on 63 Facebook advertisements helping Burns’ campaign clients.”

Fine also points to evidence a political committee run by Burns raised and spent money while failing to report it to the state.

Fine, the incumbent, just handily fended off a Republican primary challenge from Marcie Adkins, who was a client of Burns.

Now, Fine suggests to the Elections Division that Burns was not properly reporting expenditures conducted on Adkins’ behalf through the political committee Friends of Florida.

That committee formed in March but hasn’t filed any financial information since May, at which point it just reported $1,600 raised. The committee since then received 20 failure to file letters and six audit letters from the Division.

But Facebook transparency pages reveal the committee indeed spent money during the primary election. The Facebook page for Friends of Florida shared numerous posts critical posts about Fine, and transparency reports show at least $3,807 was spent promoting those. While the Facebook page is attributed to the Friend of Florida political committee, none of that spending is reported, and the amount exceeds the total reportedly raised.

Fine also suggests the Division investigate The Space Coast Rocket as well, as the website seems to specialize in articles praising clients for Burns or disparaging political opponents. That’s similar to the work typically done by political committees, but the website runs as a media outlet.

There’s no immediately obvious business model, though, to support the ongoing costs of running the site, including $7,919 work of Facebook advertising.

“It is my belief that the entire enterprise is illegal,” Fine writes.

He suggests money being paid in consulting fees to Burns supports the website, noting Adkins reported thousands more in expenditures for Facebook advertising than transparency reports show was spent through the official campaign Facebook site.

“It is my belief that Mr. Burns is simply illegally laundering money from his clients and then using it to purchase ads on their behalf on non-candidate pages,” Fine writes. “For example, my primary opponent, Marcie Adkins, according to her filings through August 13^th, paid Mr. Burns $12,054.65 for ‘Facebook Ads,’ yet the Facebook Ad Archive shows only $5920 spent on ads.

“While one might normally theorize this was an outrageous 100% ‘markup’ for services, Burns was also paid $21,000 for his ‘consulting services.’ It is a reasonable theory that the $6,000 charged but not spent was simply laundered for these advertisements by ‘The Space Coast Rocket’ and ‘Friends of Florida.’  It is my belief that that is why he refuses to file the disclosures — because it will show those funds were laundered.”