Rep. Charles Rangel, already embroiled in an ethics committee probe, used campaign funds to pay $1,540 in fines from parking tickets in Washington during the past two years, according to a report on the Congressional Quarterly’s Web site.
The New York Democrat’s campaign committee and his political action committee have made 14 separate payments to the D.C. treasurer for “automobile expenses” since March 2007, and a Rangel spokesman confirmed to CQ that campaign aides believe they were for parking tickets.
Overall, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman has paid $2,035 in parking ticket fines since 2001.
It is not illegal for Rangel to use campaign funds to pay for parking tickets if they were incurred while he was engaged in campaign activities or carrying out his duties as an officeholder.
But it is illegal to use contributions “to fulfill any commitment, obligation or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of federal office,” including a “non-campaign-related automobile expense,” according to federal campaign finance law.
Rangel’s spokesman Emile Milne told the Web site, CQ Politics, that the congressman is in compliance with the law, but could not provide details on each of the tickets.
CQ notes: “Regardless of any potential legal issues, the congressman is paying parking tickets with other people’s money.”
Last year Rangel’s car was towed from the House garage after the New York Post disclosed that he had been storing the undrivable vehicle there for several years, in violation of House rules.
The Post also reported that Rangel was using a Cadillac leased by his taxpayer-funded House office to travel to campaign events in New York — also a violation of House rules.
The Washington Post and The New York Times both called on Rangel to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the wake of ethics charges that recently came to light.
The Times disclosed that Rangel helped preserve a valuable tax loophole for an oil and gas drilling company while the firm’s chief executive was promising to donate $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at City College of New York.
The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that Rangel paid below-market rents on four apartments in New York, including one that was used illegally as a campaign office.
It also is alleged that he failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes on rental income from a vacation home in the Dominican Republic, and used official letterhead stationery to solicit donations to the public service school.