Posted on 03/05/2010 4:50:27 AM PST by Born Conservative
U.S. Rep. Chris Carney will send $21,000 from his campaign war chest to a local charity, keeping a promise that if embattled U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel were ever found to have violated House ethics rules, he would return the money.
“I have long said that I would give to charity any contributions from Mr. Rangel if the ethics committee found wrongdoing. I will be donating the contributions my campaign has received from Mr. Rangel to the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute,” Carney said.
Carney’s campaign has received $21,000 from political action committees associated with the embattled Charles Rangel, 79, since the 2006 election cycle. His opponent in the 2008 election chided Carney for holding on to the money, and Carney said that Rangel had not been found guilty of any wrongdoings at the time.
But that changed last Friday when the House ethics committee released a report accusing Rangel, D-N.Y., of violating House gift rules in connection with two trips he took to the Caribbean.
The panel said that he had violated standards of conduct by accepting 2007 and 2008 trips to Caribbean conferences that were financed by corporations. It said it could not prove whether Rangel knew of the corporate payments but concluded that members of his staff knew about them — and the congressman was responsible for their actions.
The committee also is investigating Rangel’s alleged misuse of official congressional stationery for fund-raising, his failure to pay taxes on an offshore rental property and his ownership of several rent-controlled apartments. Rangel announced Wednesday that he was stepping down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
Republican campaign officials again began criticizing Democrats for holding on to campaign contributions that resulted from Rangel’s fundraising. Some, like Carney, 51, announced they were donating the money to charity.
One of Carney’s potential GOP opponents, Dave Madeira, 43, of Lehman Township, chided Carney for accepting the money and said, “What does Carney owe Rangel for that $21,000?”
Madeira, when told of the donation, said, “I’m delighted that he’s returning the money and he’s giving it to a local charity but now he needs to return the taxpayers’ money that he’s spending without taxpayer regard.”
According to Federal Election Commission reports, Carney’s campaign received $21,000 since the 2006 election cycle. In the 2008 cycle, Carney received $10,000 from Rangel’s National Leadership PAC and $4,000 from the Rangel for Congress PAC.
When Carney, D-Dimock Township, first ran for Congress against Republican incumbent Don Sherwood in 2006, his campaign received $5,000 from the National Leadership PAC and $2,000 from the Rangel for Congress PAC.
U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, 72, has served in the House with Rangel since 1985. His campaign has $14,000 from the two Rangel PACs in the 2008 election cycle - $10,000 from the National Leadership PAC and $4,000 from the Rangel for Congress PAC. Kanjorski’s campaign received $7,000 from Rangel’s PACs during the 2002-06 election cycles.
Ed Mitchell, campaign spokesman for Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, said the campaign has not received contributions this election cycle. He said money received previously, before any ethics violations were found, has not been returned or sent to charity.
Whether it will or not, Mitchell said, “We haven’t made a decision on that.”
Corey O’Brien, Kanjorski’s opponent in the May primary election, chided the congressman for holding on to the money.
“Decisions like these, to not return or donate the money, are why we’ve lost confidence in our leaders,” said O’Brien, 36, of Moosic.
The Luzerne County GOP also issued a release attacking Kanjorski for holding on to the money.
“It comes as no surprise to the residents of Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District that Paul Kanjorski has once again chosen personal greed over ethical and decent behavior,” the statement, issued by the committee’s Executive Director Renita Fennick, said.
If I remember my history correctly, our Founding Fathers did not stay in Washington full time. It was a part time job.
YES! We were to send our finest and RESPECTED local businessmen to SERVE for a term or two. After that, they were supposed to come home, resume business and their lives and we would send another.
This was SUPPOSED to keep Washington honest.
it looks like the “word’s on the street” ... Rangel’s gonna go down HARD ...
Yeah, well... I’ll believe him when I see a receipt.
I have a theory. ObamaPelosi are trying to get rid of Congress people who have power/longetivity in hopes of getting newbies in office. They can then control the noobs with the trademark bribes such as the Lousiana Purchase and Cornhusker Kickback.
I agree that Rangel is on his way out. Many of the old timers who were more moderate got caught up in the Obama wave, and have realized too late that their hopes for re-election this Fall are dim, with them having gone along with Obama’s far left agenda. It sounds crazy, but so have many of the things that ObamaPelosi have actually implemented since Obama took office.
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