Oops. Seems like a well-heeled Roanoke-based poverty non-profit had a widdle biddy “accident” — or several of them — when it served as the site for multiple Democratic political events in likely violation of the U.S. tax code. Paige Winfield Cunningham of Old Dominion Watchdog filed a story yesterday reporting this:
The head of a multi-million dollar anti-poverty agency in Roanoke says it was an “accident” if the tax-exempt organization’s facilities were used for political events.
Rallies hosted by Democrats and held at the Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development, a venue owned by Total Action Against Poverty (TAP), prompted Mark Powell to resign from TAP’s board in June and file a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service.
Powell complained that rallies for then presidential candidate Barack Obama, Virginia Del. Onzlee Ware and former Del. Brian Moran have been held at the Dumas Center—events that are confirmed to have taken place by newspaper accounts.
A political fundraiser for Ware was held in the Dumas Center in March 2007. In February 2008, Virginia Democrats gathered to stump for Barack Obama the evening before the presidential primary. In April 2009, Ware announced his candidacy from the venue. And two months later Moran held a rally in front of the center during his campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.