You'd think State Rep. Carl Isett of Lubbock would know the state's ethics laws when it comes to paying his wife out of his campaign contribution fund.

A "Campaign Finance Guide" handed out by the Texas Ethics Commission states it simply:

"A candidate or officeholder may not use political contributions to pay for personal services rendered by the candidate or officeholder or by the spouse, or dependent children of the candidate or officeholder."

It's a simple concept.

You can't hire yourself out of campaign funds, and you can't hire your spouse. If you could, campaign funds could too easily become money laundering devices for legal bribery.

'I'm not aware'

It became an issue with Isett a year ago when a reporter for the local CBS station in Austin asked him about more than $40,000 he had paid his wife, Cheri, out of his campaign account for "bookkeeping services" during the previous three years or so.

"She runs errands for the campaign, and again, keeps a strict accounting of those times," Isett said.

When the reporter, Nanci Wilson, suggested such payments were illegal, Isett said, "I'm not aware that that's the case ... as long as there are services performed for legitimate functions and purposes for the campaign or officeholder."

It's not clear if Isett, who had previously served on Speaker Tom Craddick's Select Committee on Ethics, bothered to check with the Texas Ethics Commission.

If he did he would have been pointed both to the law and to a few instances of officials being assessed (small) fines for violating the provision.

Going with a 'new' company

But for whatever reason, the two campaign reports he filed since that television interview no longer list payments for bookkeeping services to "Cheri Isett Bookkeeping & Tax Services."

They show payments instead to "Lubbock Bookkeeping Services" totaling $39,158.

The last report, covering the second half of last year, includes a daunting $27,457 to Lubbock Bookkeeping – nearly half the total expenses of $56,000.

In addition to bookkeeping, the firm is listed as providing "contributor database management."

That sounds impressive, but it seems to me to be part of the same job that Cheri Isett had presumably been doing for the required reports.

Mystery firm unmasked

So who is Lubbock Bookkeeping Services and why are they so much more expensive than even Cheri Isett had been?

I called directory assistance in Lubbock, but they had no listing for Lubbock Bookkeeping Services.

I Googled the firm, but again found no listing.

The campaign report lists a post office box in Lubbock for Lubbock Bookkeeping.

But Houstonian John Cobarruvias, who loves to police campaign reports and who brought Isett to my attention, found some not unsubtle clues in an online record of the Texas Secretary of State.

It shows Lubbock Bookkeeping Services as a limited liability company with an address in Lubbock that just happens to be the same address that earlier campaign finance reports showed for (drumroll, please) Cheri Isett!

What's more, Cheri Isett is the registered agent for the company.

A very civil penalty

Skeptical reporter that I am, it occurred to me that the Isetts might be trying to pull one over on Texas citizens and the vaunted Texas Ethics Commission.

But Isett may have a perfectly innocent explanation.

Unfortunately he didn't return my calls Friday morning to both his state and Lubbock offices. I told his aides at both offices that I wanted to ask about his campaign finance reports.

According to the Texas Election Code, hiring one's spouse with campaign funds is a Class A misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

I don't know if anyone has ever been prosecuted for the crime.

I did find a case from last year in which Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert was found to have paid his wife two checks totalling $6,200 in 2006 for, of all things, "bookkeeping services."

The Ethics Commission considered "the seriousness of the violations" and "the sanction necessary to deter future violations," and imposed a "civil penalty" of $100.

The cost of doing business

That's about as civil as a penalty can get. It means he gets to illegally pay his wife $6,200 and pay the Ethics Commission a hundred bucks as a cost of doing business.

That should deter future violations.

By that calculation, the commission will fine Isett a full grand for paying his wife more than $70,000 in the past four years.

Net family income, before taxes: $69,000.

But, as they say on late-night television, there's more. The law allows these guys to pay their "civil penalties" out of their campaign accounts.

Who says crime doesn't pay?

You can write to Rick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210, or e-mail him at rick.casey@chron.com.