Sen. Kim Brimer desperate to hide his own bailout at government expense

by Vince Leibowitz of Capitol Annex

Capitol Annex says Brimer has gone so far as to file an FCC complaint Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA because the station aired a negative story about him.

Kim Brimer

In the midst of talk about a $700 billion taxpayer bailout at the federal level, State Sen. Kim Brimer is pretty desperate to make sure that voters in the 10th Senate District don’t find out about the fact he had a taxpayer-funded bailout of his own some years ago.

In fact, Brimer has gone so far as to file an FCC complaint Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA because the station aired a negative story about him.

The problem for Brimer is that his record of bad loans, which resurfaced last week, is particularly alarming to voters who are concerned about the health of the economy in the face of the current banking crisis.

Brimer, the man who Texas Monthly called “shameless,” and the man “who never seems to run out of bad ideas,” defaulted on multiple campaign loans resulting in lawsuits and judgments against him when he was a State Representative. One of the banks Brimer refused to repay then failed.

The loan was in turn taken over by the FDIC. In a letter to the FDIC, Brimer claimed he couldn’t afford to repay the $24,000 loan, even though during the same time period he wrote himself a check for $25,000 from his campaign account. Brimer also owned a successful insurance company and was drawing a government salary as a legislator at the time.

From the Wendy Davis campaign:

“Tarrant County voters are upset that they may be forced to pick up the tab for the largest bank bailout in U.S. history, and unethical players who game the system – like Kim Brimer did – are a big part of the problem,” Davis campaign spokesman Bernie Scheffler said.