Posted on 01/22/2006 6:24:47 AM PST by Ellesu
Legislators use contributions for cars, memberships and sports tickets:
Former state House Speaker Charlie DeWitt spent $19,000 to finish paying off a Jaguar.
State Sen. Robert Adley spent thousands on a new wardrobe.
More than 50 Louisiana legislators bought LSU football season tickets, most paying extra for some of the best seats in Tiger Stadium.
The money came not out of legislators’ pockets but from their supporters and special interests.
The money came out of legislators’ campaign accounts.
Campaign contributors paid those expenses and a lot more in 2004, the latest year for which campaign finance reports are available.
New reports detailing Louisiana politicians’ campaign contributions and political expenses for 2005 are due Feb. 15.
Most of the expenses have been declared legal by the state Board of Ethics, which oversees how lawmakers spend money they get from people and groups that want them to stay in office.
Some expenses, such as football tickets, have not been specifically OK’d by the board but have not been discouraged either.
A review of the latest reports shows some lawmakers were still paying off campaign debts, holding fund-raisers, putting out constituent newsletters and participating in other political activities in 2004.
But many spent money on things not typically associated with running for office.
Campaign accounts underwrote the Baton Rouge living expenses of three dozen legislators, including rent, utilities, cable TV, apartment furnishings, maid service and dining out. At the same time, the legislators got government reimbursement toward living expenses while they were in session or on official state business.
Campaign contributors also paid for lawmakers to:
Join Mardi Gras krewes, civic, business and political clubs. Attend the Washington Mardi Gras festivities. Buy Sugar Bowl, New Orleans Hornets and New Orleans Saints tickets. Send Christmas cards. Contribute to other politicians’ campaigns as well as their own bids for other offices. Play golf. Make church, school and charitable donations. Send flowers. Buy graduation gifts. Provide Christmas bonuses and other extra pay for employees. Pay car notes, as well as insurance, gasoline and car-repair bills. One legislator leased a private plane. One lawmaker billed his campaign account for a passport, another for a babysitter. Another took a spouse on a legislature-related trip.
Three legislators used their campaign funds to pay fines for failing to file campaign finance reports on time.
State Rep. Yvonne Dorsey, D-Baton Rouge, paid for a subscription to “O” — the Oprah Winfrey magazine — listing it as a communications expense. State Sen. James David Cain, R-Dry Creek, got a subscription to Sports Illustrated.
What the law allows State law prohibits public servants from taking money from outside sources to do their public job, or getting money from people or interests affected by the public servant’s position in government.
But, in what amounts to an exception to the ethics rules, elected officials can accept money from those same sources if they spend it on political campaigns or the costs of holding public office.
To prevent abuse, state laws says the expenses “must truly be related to efforts to get elected or re-elected,” said chief ethics lawyer Gray Sexton said.
Sexton said the Louisiana Board of Ethics, which oversees campaign finance laws, has never made “a laundry list of the dos and don’ts.”
The board prefers to tackle what’s allowable and what’s not when someone asks about a specific expense.
The ethics board has been fairly liberal in what it has allowed “because it’s not public money we are talking about,” Sexton said. “If it’s remotely related to the holding of public office,” blessing has been given. The only real question is whether the expenditure is for a personal purpose, he said.
One no-no is personal clothes. The board has tackled that question more than once.
After The Advocate inquired about Adley spending $3,700 for clothing and accessories at a high-end men’s store, ethics officials contacted Adley to tell him it was not permissible. Adley promised to replenish his campaign account for the clothing expense.
Car payments are OK DeWitt’s purchase of a luxury Jaguar is another matter. Legislators can lease or buy vehicles with campaign funds with a caveat — that use has to be related to their public office.
After his latest successful re-election in his mostly rural district, the Lecompte Democrat sent a $19,027.66 campaign-account check to Jaguar Credit Corp. to pay off a car note.
DeWitt said he “wore out a car being speaker,” with all the driving he had to do as top House leader.
“I just use it for campaign purposes and driving back and forth to Baton Rouge,” said DeWitt.
Until 2001, the ethics board frowned on use of campaign funds for vehicles. But it softened its stance in an opinion issued to state Sen. Robert Barham, R-Oak Ridge.
Barham asked about using campaign funds to buy and maintain a vehicle. His district includes parts of five parishes and he makes frequent trips to the State Capitol.
The board advised Barham that “to the extent that the vehicle is to be used for transportation related to your official duties, the expenditure of campaign funds is not prohibited.”
Legislators took a cue from the opinion.
Rep. Ken Odinet, D-Arabi, reported buying a used 2001 Expedition from Lamarque Ford with $19,713.50 in campaign funds.
Other lawmakers made monthly payments on vehicles using campaign cash, including Senate President Don Hines, D-Bunkie, House Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. John Alario, D-Westwego, and state Sens. James David Cain, R-Dry Creek, and Tom Schedler, R-Slidell.
Campaign money also pays for insurance on Alario and Cain’s vehicles.
Sexton said he doubts legislators keep records on private use of vehicles.
Schedler bills his campaign account for half the note on a vehicle he bought after his old car’s engine “literally burnt up” from the wear and tear of political life.
Schedler said he tried to determine a fair allotment of the vehicle’s use. “You can’t say every waking minute you are doing legislative business,” said Schedler.
Tickets mostly for constituents The ethics board has not specifically addressed the purchase of LSU tickets with campaign funds.
But Sexton said he can already hear the justification lawmakers would make.
“The argument would be … they have got to maintain their presence at public events, and an LSU football game is the quintessential public event that mandates political people being there,” said Sexton. “They have to have good seats and participate.”
The same thing is true with memberships to different groups, Sexton said. “You have to be a member of the chamber, a Mardi Gras krewe, a hunting club because that’s where heavy-hitting politicking is done,” said Sexton.
Rep. Alario spent more than $6,000 on LSU football and baseball tickets in 2005.
“Generally I give those to people who help me raise money for campaigns, big campaign contributors,” said Alario.
Alario said most legislators buy tickets for that reason and don’t even attend many games. “I go once in a while and take someone with me. It’s nice if you escort them sometimes,” he said.
DeWitt, who bought more than $11,000 worth of LSU tickets, said he also does it for his constituents. “There’s some that love LSU who never can get a ticket. I just happen to be able to get them,” he said.
Out of 144 legislators, at least 59 bought LSU sporting-event tickets with campaign cash. Almost all of them paid $800 to the Tradition Fund — the charge for the right to buy two choice tickets in Tiger Stadium. They then paid $512 for the tickets.
State Rep. Yvonne Dorsey, D-Baton Rouge, paid for a subscription to “O” — the Oprah Winfrey magazine — listing it as a communications expense.
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