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Diddy's Election Don't?
Add another entry to the list of Diddy haters.
The conservative National Legal and Policy Center has filed a complaint against the rapper over his Vote or Die/Citizen Change campaign during the 2004 presidential elections.
In its Nov. 3 complaint to the Federal Election Commission, the center says, "Citizen Change purports to have conducted voter mobilization on a 'nonpartisan basis'." But the Virginia-based group contends Diddy's organization engaged in electioneering--a serious no-no under federal laws--alleging Citizen Change was determined to "get Bush's ass out of office" and vote in John Kerry.
On Tuesday, the center received word the FEC would review the accusations. An FEC spokesman says the commission receives several such complaints and would not comment until an investigation is conducted and a decision had been reached.
Although the rapper said numerous times during Citizen Change's media blitz in the lead up to the election that he was not for either candidate, the center disagrees.
The complaint cites a Rolling Stone report on Diddy's appearance at the Rock the Vote Awards ceremony in February 2004--five months before he announced the formation of Citizen Change--where the rapper said, "We're going to get Bush's ass out of that office."
It goes on to quote from numerous reports on rallies for the get-out-the-youth-vote cause, during which the center says speakers "called for the election of Kerry and the defeat of Bush."
One of the rallies was attended by Leonardo DiCaprio, who, per a Detroit Free Press account cited in the complaint, urged the young voters to back Kerry.
Further, the center alleges, Citizen Change may have had links to the Kerry campaign, although the complaint only contains press clippings discussing Democratic strategist James Carville's involvement with the Diddy group.
The National Legal and Policy Center also thinks Diddy's group cooked the books, alleging Citizen Change "failed to disclose or report to the FEC any of their receipts or expenditures, which must have totaled millions of dollars." Diddy famously flogged "Vote or Die" T-shirts during the campaign.
"We feel these are clear-cut violations," Peter Flaherty, president of the center, told the Associated Press Tuesday.
(The center might be up on its election rules but it hasn't been keeping tabs on the rapper's ever-morphing nickname, listing him as Sean Combs, aka P. Diddy or Puff Daddy.)
A rep for Citizen Change stood by its leader Tuesday, saying Combs managed to recruit many new voters and that his work should be applauded.
So far Diddy has been mum on the complaint--although he had plenty to say when he launched Citizen Change in July 2004.
"For the first time in history, we're going to make voting fashionable," said Combs at the Manhattan press announcement. "We want to make voting sexy.
"The forgotten ones will ultimately decide who the next president is," Combs continued. "According to the latest polls, Bush and Kerry are neck and neck. We will make the difference. We will be the deciding factor."
Despite the complaint, Diddy never explicitly endorsed either candidate once he launched the "Vote or Die" initiative. He even told the Associated Press that "Kerry isn't smart enough" and should be spending more time in the inner city to "see how a young kid is going to school."
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