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Keeping campaign funds (almost) all in the family
Who better to hire for campaign work than spouses and children? It might be controversial, but it's not unusual.
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WASHINGTON - New evidence that politics is often a family affair:
It turns out that freshman Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., used campaign funds to pay his wife nearly $10,000 to work on his 2008 congressional race. That's according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings analyzed by a Democratic-leaning website.
The Minnesota Progressive Project, a merger of the Minnesota Campaign Report and MN Blue, reported that Carolyn Paulsen received payroll disbursements between late August and December of last year. One of the payments was a travel reimbursement of $728.37.
The campaign released a statement Wednesday saying that she worked as an office manager with the campaign.
The practice of hiring spouses and other family members to work on campaigns, while controversial, is not unusual.
A 2007 report by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government (CREW) listed 96 House members from 33 states (41 Democrats and 55 Republicans) who used funds from their campaigns or political action committees to reimburse spouses or other family members for campaign work or expenses.
Among them was Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., whose campaign paid his son Elliott Peterson more than $125,000 in salary over the 2002, 2004 and 2006 elections, according to CREW.
FEC reports also show that the campaign of Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., made $5,000 in contract payments to his wife, Kim Ellison, during his 2006 campaign for Congress. A campaign spokesman said the payments were for get-out-the-vote efforts. Ellison's son also worked as a paid field canvasser in the 2008 campaign.
Other House members from Minnesota have reimbursed family members for incidental campaign expenses, including Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn. His campaign came under fire from Republicans two years ago for reimbursing his wife for babysitting services while she attended a campaign event.
The U.S. House voted in 2007 to ban spouses from campaign payrolls, but the legislation stalled in the Senate.
Kevin Diaz • 202-408-2753
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