Money is bad politics

U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews decision to refund about $9,000 to his campaign account to cover money he spent on a family trip to Ireland highlights everything that is wrong with our campaign system. While the congressman insists he has done nothing wrong, the behavior certainly is unseemly and it raises questions about why we allow our elected officials to maintain accounts like these.

Here is the Ledger’s description of what happened:

In June, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1st Dist.) and his family visited Edinburgh for a wedding — part of a larger European vacation. There, Andrews, his wife and two teenage daughters stayed at the Balmoral Hotel in the center of town, which bills itself as a “luxury hotel in the true sense of the word.” The price was indeed five-star: Two rooms for three nights cost $7,725.

Nor did they go to Scotland empty-handed. The family bought a $463 china set from Bloomingdale’s as a gift to the newlyweds.

In all, Andrews and his family spent more than $9,000 on the Edinburgh leg of the trip. Rather, his congressional campaign did.

The hotel, wedding gift, and several hundred more dollars for ground transportation, meals and petty cash came not from the family’s pockets, but from Andrews’ campaign fund, according to a Star-Ledger review of his campaign-finance-reports.

Andrews said the expense was legitimate because the wedding was for a donor
and volunteer adviser, allowing him to consider it a political event. Citing privacy concerns, he declined to identify the adviser, who he said helps his campaign with opposition research.

“We have legal advice, and before we make any expenditure like that we listen to legal advice,” said Andrews, pointing out that the rest of the European vacation, including airfare, was paid for with family funds. “We’re convinced this is an appropriate expenditure to thank and support someone who has given us a lot of time and effort.”

Interesting explanation on Andrews’ part, but how many of us can claim access to this kind of political slush fund?

And that’s the problem. There are thousands of politicians with the same kind of cash accounts, full of money given them by the rich and powerful as an incentive to do the bidding of the rich and powerful. It becomes pretty easy to comingle the money — campaign and personal activities becomes conflated and we end up with Camden County politicians taking trips to Ireland and calling them campaign-related.

That this kind of thing is legal is damning in and of itself.

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet