Domingue Camp Blows Off Charity Questions
by Charlie Buras (excerpt)

THE OLD RIVER ROAD BLOG

Lee Domingue has made his charity work a central part of his campaign for State Senate. It goes to the heart of his character, and he uses it to distinguish himself in the three-way Republican race. In fact, Bobby Jindal pointed to Lee's charity work in his recent endorsement.

As Red Stick Rant noted yesterday, there are some legitimate questions regarding Domingue's charity -- Cyrus International. If you download the group's IRS 990 form, you see that it reported $0 in assets for 2007. It raised nothing and spent nothing.

Now, there could be a legitimate reason why the organization's 990 reported no contributions or expenditures. This was the group's first year -- maybe it hadn't gotten off the ground yet. That's something we just don't know.

I asked Domingue campaign manager, Lenny Alcivar, about the 2007 IRS report and asked him if he could send over anything that showed Cyrus' activity for 2008. Unfortunately, Alcivar blew me off, calling it "baseless crap," "empty, loaded questions" and accused me of "pro-Claitor spin."

Here's where I take issue with this -- Lee Domingue has opened the door on his charity work. It's on his website and in his pushcards. And if he's going to use it as a reason to get elected, the voting public has a right to check it out. It's not unreasonable to ask for data from 2008, and Lenny Alcivar was wrong to dismiss this out of hand.