Greater Rome Times

From today’s article:

Christina L. Frey, filed three complaints related to Handel's campaign expenditure reports in April and May, according to Handel and the ethics commission.

Handel's campaign contends that Frey and Katie Grove, Stephens' campaign manager, are friends who ran cross-country together while at Georgia Tech. They found a photograph from the 1997 Tech yearbook showing the two posing for a team picture.

In an interview, Grove initially denied knowing Frey. When told a photograph of the two together existed, she acknowledged they were roommates at Georgia Tech. But Grove insists that Frey is acting on her own and that the Stephens campaign did not collaborate with her on the complaints.

Frey, contacted by telephone, told a reporter she could not discuss the complaints at work and said to call back in the evenings. She did not return subsequent telephone messages left for her in the evenings.

"We know he's absolutely behind them," Handel said of Stephens. "And they're going to be dismissed. I'm 100 percent confident of that."

“Bill Stephens and Campaign Manager Katie Grove both denied any knowledge of the complaints, seemingly stretching the limits of coincidence to new lengths. In order to believe Stephens and his campaign, you have to believe that the former roommate, team-mate and friend of the Campaign Manager independently reviewed each campaign disclosure filed by the Handel Campaign; independently reviewed the applicable state codes and campaign disclosure requirements; independently drafted the complaints – complete with legal citations; filed those complaints with the State Ethics Commission; and, although being friends with the campaign manager, she anonymously sent those complaints to the Stephens campaign,” Handel Campaign Manager Marty Ryall said.

Ryall added, “What a bizarre set of coincidences…Bill’s explanation is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard a politician say since ‘it depends on what you’re meaning of the word is, is.’ Bill and Katie cooked up this scheme, got her college buddy to file it, and then denied even knowing her. Christina Frey has opened herself up to potential civil and criminal penalties for false swearing. These are the signs of a campaign so desperate to cover up Bill’s own personal and ethical problems that they are willing to hang a friend out to dry. This crosses all ethical boundaries of campaigns,” Handel Campaign Manager Marty Ryall said.

“We have reviewed these complaints and they are without merit. I am confident the Ethics Commission will agree and dismiss them,” said Robert Highsmith, attorney for the Handel campaign and former member of the State Ethics Commission.

Karen Handel said, “I’m used to tough political fights, and I have obviously had my share with the Democrats on the Fulton County Commission. People who know me know that I don’t back down from my convictions. But Bill Stephens’ blatantly untrue attacks are exactly what is wrong with politics today. He has called into question my position on abortion when I have always been adamantly pro-life. And if that was not enough, we learn that he is behind the filing of frivolous ethics complaints against me. Bill Stephens thinks this shows how he is battle tested, but we all know it is just an attempt to distract attention from his ethics problems.”

Bill Stephens is very familiar with ethics complaints having just two years ago paid the largest ethics fine in state history. That case involved numerous counts of ethics violations involving his campaign disclosures; additionally Stephens eventually made more than 500 changes to campaign disclosures. In addition to receiving the largest ethics fine ever, the State Ethics Commission disallowed more than $30,000 that Bill Stephens was attempting to personally collect from his campaign.

Bill Stephens soon after was fined, again, for failing to pay this record fine on time.

Source: Georgians for Karen Handel, Inc.