http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1138797039226220.xml&coll=2Thursday, February 16, 2006
Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief
Washington – He's been an astronaut, senator, hero, teacher and $2.68 million campaign debtor. But John Glenn is in debt no more.
Effective today, Glenn closes the books on $2 million worth of bank loans, plus interest, that his ill-fated 1984 presidential campaign took on. His campaign didn't get enough contributions to pay back the money in full – a fact that has haunted Glenn in an otherwise illustrious public life.
Until now, Glenn aides, volunteers and his daughter, campaign treasurer Lyn Glenn, have had to faithfully provide the Federal Election Commission with quarterly updates, listing every penny that the campaign still owed and adding interest on the bank loans. But thanks to a request from Lyn Glenn in October and an FEC decision made in January and effective today, Friends of John Glenn can call it quits and, as Lyn requested, "let the public record stand as it is."
"I'm glad to see the whole thing come to an end," John Glenn told The Plain Dealer, which found the FEC order when examining election records...
Fly with John Glenn, pay later -- maybe
http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_openers/archives/2006_02.html#113518 Did the press stiff John Glenn for thousands of dollars in travel bills after his failed 1984 presidential bid?
That's the impression from the Glenn campaign's filings with the Federal Election Commission -- filings that detail $2.68 million in debt the campaign owes and $66,169 that others, including the media, owe the campaign. It's all become funny money after 22 years, with no chance of further payment, so the FEC as of today is letting Friends of John Glenn end its quarterly filings and shut the books on this chapter of the former astronaut's life. (See Plain Dealer story).
But what of the media debts? Did all these news organizations, from National Public Radio to U.S. News & World Report and a handful of newspapers and chains, shirk their obligations?
No, even though the records make it look that way, says Whitney Burns, a longtime Glenn volunteer who kept the campaign's books...