A Goodlettsville man has filed a complaint against two Constitutional Republican groups claiming they failed to register as political action committees even though their activities reach a level requiring state disclosures.
Wes Duenkel, owner of a motorsports photography business, made a sworn complaint with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley in late November 2023 saying the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans and their partner organization, the Tennessee Constitutional Republicans, are unregistered political action committees yet qualify as a “multicandidate political action committee,” making expenditures to support or oppose two or more candidates for public office or two or more measures in an election involving referendums. Duenkel contends in his sworn complaint he has been unable to find a political action committee disclosure or any financial disclosures even though they have been operating for well more than a year.
Duenkel said Tuesday his problem with the organizations is not so much with their political views, though he disagrees with them on many topics, but with their failure to follow rules.
“I think laws are in place for a reason,” Duenkel said, adding he served on a political action committee dealing with school funding and filed financial reports. “I think it’s my duty as a citizen to at least raise the question and raise the issue of, if some groups follow the law, we all follow the law.”
The Registry of Election Finance is scheduled to review the matter at its Jan. 23 meeting at the Tennessee Tower.
Duenkel’s filing presents documentation showing the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans chairman, Ken Riley, saying the group had been in existence for more than four years in April 2022. Since its inception, it has sent out requests for donations, saying it spends “an incredible amount of time working to advance conservatism,” designed and bought stickers and other merchandise and hired private investigators to vet candidates.
Sumner County Constitutional Republicans also endorsed Todd Kerr, Marie Mobley, Tracy Finegan, Timothy Crowder and Josh Graham for school board seats, Chris Spencer for state Senate District 18 and General Sessions Judge Russ Edwards in 2024 elections.
The group opposes Republican state Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, sending out mailers showing donations to his campaign from drug companies and medical groups.
In addition, the group “disavowed” Sumner County Mayor John Isbell after supporting him. “Dealing with lying politicians is tricky and we will do better going forward. John could careless [sic} about this,” a post by the group states.
Duenkel notes he believes the Sumner County and Tennessee Constitutional Republicans are county and state organizations but filed the complaint initially with the Sumner County District Attorney’s Office before sending it on to the Registry of Election Finance.
“Campaign finance law is supposed to keep those who fund campaign activities transparents, and citizens like myself want all groups like this to follow the law,” Duenkel said in his complaint.
Sumner County Constitutional Republicans gained more than a foothold in the county’s political landscape over the last few years, endorsing 14 of 17 county commissioners who won 2022 races, along with backing winning school board candidates, working to remove books from school libraries and pushing a vote to insert the words “Judeo-Christian” into a guiding document for the Sumner County Commission’s work.
The group’s Bible-based platform calls for establishing a Christian foundation for governing and halting growth and development in Sumner County, which is located just northeast of Davidson County. It supports impact fees to pay for growth and development, according to Facebook posts.
“We exist to defeat liberal, progressive and communist ideologies. We are NOT friends with these radicals and we aren’t interested in working with them or partnering with them,” the group says on its Facebook page. “Our country is being destroyed by these ideologies.”
The site is also critical of so-called RINOs (Republicans in name only), which it claims tried to have two school board candidates removed from the ballot before the Tennessee Republican Party approved them.
The Registry of Election Finance notified Riley of the complaint in late November and placed the matter on the board’s January agenda for a preliminary review. He did not respond to an email request for comment Tuesday.
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The article in this post was originally published on Tennessee Lookout and parts of it are included here under a Creative Commons license CC BY-ND 4.0
