Congressmembers Solicit Big Campaign Contributions, Retire And Then Illegally Access The Cash-- And It's All "Legal"

Back in the day, Ventura Republican congressman Elton Gallegly was a regular-- albeit minor-- character here at DWT... a crooked little shit and a worthless backbencher. He was like a barnacle on the ass of more outrageously crooked colleagues like Buck McKeon, especially when it came to the Countrywide bribery scandal. Gallegly was elected to Congress in 1986 when a corrupt Biden-clone racist, Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, left the seat too run for the US Senate-- garnering just 7.2% of the GOP primary vote.

He retired in 2012 rather than face criminal indictment for taking a bribe from Countrywide. However, he's back in the news again for leftover campaign funds.

Pelosi's bullshit HR1 didn't address the little gift that Congress gave itself in the form of a work-around for retired members to get their hands on the bribery euphemistically treated as "campaign contributions." Sometimes the leftover money amounts to immense sums that surreptitiously help ex-members finance their retirement. Gallegly had over $750,000 left after his 2010 race. That's real money. What happened to it? Jeremy Childs scratched the surface for the Ventura County Star Sunday.

Although Elton Gallegly hasn’t been a congressman for years, he has more than $120,000 in campaign funds left, and federal regulators want to know if some of the money has been spent for personal use.

At issue is money paid to his wife for managing the leftover funds and money spent on printing.

Gallegly, a Simi Valley Republican who served as a U.S. representative from 1987 through 2013, had $122,269.26 in remaining campaign funds at the end of 2018, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Jill Sugarman, an assistant branch chief at the agency, sent a letter to Gallegly and his wife, Janice, on Wednesday about the “apparent personal use” of $2,550 in campaign funds in the latter half of 2018.

The letter asked for clarification regarding two expenses filed in the campaign’s year-end report: the first was $450 spent Oct. 29, 2018, at a company called Accurate Word for printing, and the other was $2,100 issued to Janice Gallegly for “bookkeeping and FEC compliance,” paid in seven monthly stipends of $300.

Regulations allow funds raised for campaigns to be disbursed for specific purposes, such as making charitable donations or contributing to other campaigns. However, “if the expense would exist even in the absence of the candidacy or even if the officeholder were not in office, then the personal use ban applies.”

...The FEC allows the use of campaign funds to compensate candidates’ family members under two conditions: if the family member is providing a bona fide service to the campaign, and if the payments reflect the fair market value of the service provided.

Last week, CNN reported that dozens of crooked ex-congressman are up to the same culture of corruption swampy bullshit Gallagly is doing. Reporter Fredreka Schouten wrote that "It's been an open secret in Washington for years: Political careers may end, but some former members of Congress keep their campaign accounts alive long after they have left Capitol Hill, using the unspent money to pay relatives and underwrite an array of expenses that crop up in their post-congressional lives... Federal rules allow former candidates to donate leftover funds to charity, other candidates and to political parties. But they cannot convert money from their primary campaign accounts to personal use, defined as a 'commitment, obligation or expense of any person that would exist irrespective of the candidate's campaign or duties as a federal office holder.' The Campaign Legal Center last year asked the FEC to step up regulation of leftover campaign funds, following an investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and WTSP-TV that found hundreds of thousands of dollars in leftover campaign funds being used for what appeared to be personal expenses."

Going into the 2016 and 2018 elections, several members who weren't running had immense amounts of campaign cash on hand. The half dozen worst:

• Paul Ryan (R-WI)- $5,803,397
• Pat Tiberi (R-OH)- $5,167,554
• Steve Fincher (R-TN)- $2,389,554
• Ted Poe (R-TX)- $2,064,841
• Pat Meehan (R-PA)- $1,935,356
• Mark Sanford (R-SC)- $1,327,791

Going into the 2020 elections, the half dozen House members with the biggest cash accounts, 4 of the 5 Dems hoping to be able to use the money towards eventual Senate races (which is legal):

• Adam Schiff (D-CA)- $5,541,987
• Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL)- $5,174,470
• Devin Nunes (R-CA)- $4,915,893
• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)- $4,911,891
• Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)- $4,347,154
• Joe Kennedy III (D-MA)- $4,192,001