“I don’t know what the big issue is.”

Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks answers more questions about that loan to his campaign.

An editorial page question for the last week from the MobilePressRegister/BhamNews/MontgomeryAdvertiser/PoliticalParlor/etc: where did the money come from? In particular, a $500,000 personal loan to campaign Sparks. While it may not be a “talk-about” among many voters, reporters and bloggers started chattering about it not long after campaign finance reports were released.

“I am a good credit risk… I have the ability to go to the bank and borrow money and put it in my campaign,” he said this morning on FOX6 News Good Day Alabama.

Efforts to put away this topic started Monday with a statement to the Montgomery Advertiser. Sparks pointed to other candidates who loaned their campaigns more money. He questioned why he was the only one “under scrutiny.”

In that statement, Sparks speculated it was because of his stance on gambling and driven by his primary opponent, Congressman Artur Davis.

A February 13th story by George Altman in the Press Register first pointed to questions of the loan, despite Sparks listing no assets in the separate ethics filing.

Other candidates who have loaned their campaign larger sums, including Tim James, Kay Ivey and Robert Bentley, have listed – in some cases – considerable assets in their Statement of Economic Interest dated for 2008.

During this morning’s interview, Sparks stated he was willing to release additional documentation to resolve the issue.

“I’ll do it as soon as we possibly can… I’ll tell my campaign… absolutely.”

Watch the interview here.

Read more of Rick Journey’s blogs here.

Filed under: Elections