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Questions Raised Over Representative's Website

Posted at 8:42 PM, Jan 23, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-23 21:42:44-05

State officials said a Tennessee Representative could be violating a state policy on campaign contributions through a donation option on his website.

State Representative Jason Zachary is from Knox County and was first elected back in 2015.

He knows that state law prohibits him from accepting or soliciting donations while the House is in session.

Here's the problem though, on his website, there is a button that is currently soliciting donations.

NewsChannel 5 talked to Rep. Zachary about this Monday. His explanation was that when you try to donate money, there is no bank connected to that link; so it won't process your credit card.

Still though, Drew Rawlins, who is the executive director of the State's Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, said that one button gives the appearance of soliciting donations.

"The thought process was they didn't want to give the appearance that they were being influenced during the session...so they decided to prohibit contributions during the session," said Rawlins.

The state ethics and finance office has not received any formal complaint about Representative Zachary's website.

NewsChannel 5 asked him "why not just remove that button," and he said it would be too difficult to re-code his website.