BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby Jindal will pay a $2,500 fine for violating the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws, rather than wait for a public hearing before the state ethics board to determine if a violation occurred, his spokeswoman said Thursday.
The Louisiana Board of Ethics was looking into whether to fine Jindal for late disclosure of more than $118,000 in campaign aid he received from the state Republican Party when he was running for governor last year.
The board had scheduled a public hearing on the matter for July 10.
But Melissa Sellers, the governor’s press secretary, said Jindal intends to pay the fine rather than dispute it in July.
“We’re going to pay the fine and move on, move forward,” she said.
The issue comes only weeks before Jindal calls lawmakers to the state Capitol for a special legislative session on ethics reform. The governor campaigned on a platform of transparency in government.
Jindal amended his campaign finance report in September after an ethics complaint claimed the Republican candidate should have reported direct mail sent on his behalf by the state GOP as an “in-kind” contribution to his campaign.
