Gabbard cleared in one spending case
By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer
In the face of new accusations that she violated campaign spending laws, Board of Education member Carol Gabbard yesterday said she has been cleared in a complaint brought by activists.
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Gabbard yesterday said the complaints have been raised by "homosexual activists" who are harassing her and her family.
Carol Gabbard says she and her family are being harassed.
The state Campaign Spending Commission received a complaint in March from a pro-gay rights group that Gabbard had used the office of the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values as her campaign headquarters and had not listed use of the office as a contribution.
In a letter responding to the complaint, the commission said "there does not appear to be a violation of the campaign spending law."
"We didn't see a problem simply because there were no facts," said commission executive director Robert Watada.
The commission is now looking into a second complaint filed last week by Nancy Gillespie. Gillespie, who also is known as Nancy Roberts, campaigned against Gabbard during the election. She and others objected to Gabbard's involvement with what they called anti-homosexual groups and said Gabbard would use her position on the board to influence policies concerning gay students.
Gabbard has until May 30 to respond to the latest complaint that she did not report such "in-kind" contributions as newspaper advertising and the use of a telephone, fax and post office box that she received from the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values.
Gabbard's husband, Mike Gabbard, is president of the alliance, which helped lead the campaign against the legalization of same-sex marriage in 1998.
Meanwhile, Gabbard has altered her financial disclosure form with the state ethics commission after another complaint filed in March that she had not disclosed positions that she or her husband held.
The updated form lists her former position with the Science of Identity Foundation and Mike Gabbard's presidency of the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values and Stop Promoting Homosexuality International.
Gabbard said that information was not included earlier because of a "misunderstanding" on her part that nonpaying positions also had to be disclosed.
