Weston Wamp talks directly to U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., during a one-on-one debate inside the WTCI television studio in Chattanooga.If 3rd District congressional candidate Weston Wamp has been on paid leave from Lamp Post Group – as a founding partner said early this month – he could find himself in an election finance nightmare.
Money that he was paid for times he wasn’t working could be counted as a campaign contribution, said Larry Noble, a lawyer for Campaign Legal Center and former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission.
“When you are a doing a job that is a regular job that has defined duties, and you aren’t doing it, it’s a campaign contribution,” Noble said.
“It could also even be an illegal contribution,” he said, because corporations can’t make political donations to candidates.
But another partner at the business incubator said Tuesday the company doesn’t offer paid leave, and that his colleague misspoke. He said Wamp is working remotely.