Sounds like the Feds needs to do some investigating.
A New Jersey congressman has spent at least $97,000 in campaign money on at least 18 trips over the past five years to California, where his daughter has been pursuing a singing and acting career, The Associated Press found.
Campaign finance reports show U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews pulled in about $260,000 in donations from California residents and political actions committees during the period, apparently holding major fundraising events during about a half-dozen of the trips. It's impossible to tell from the records whether he met with donors on other visits. Federal campaign finance regulations allow campaign funds to be used for certain non-fundraising travel.
But campaign experts say that raising less than $3 per $1 spent on fundraising is a lower rate than normal for most candidates and raises questions about why he is making so many trips to California.
Andrews is not accused of any wrongdoing, and his campaign says that his expenditures in California were legitimate, in part because connections there have helped him raise money in other states.
A Washington watchdog group has urged federal election regulators to examine whether Andrews, who was first elected to the House in 1990, has been using campaign money for personal expenses in his California travels. It highlighted a November 2011 trip on which he spent nearly $12,000 in campaign funds, met with donors and raised at least $5,000 while he stayed at Beverly Hills Plaza hotel, hired limousine services for $1,400 and was photographed attending his daughter's recording session. The records do not say whether the campaign paid for her expenses, though Andrews, 54, says it never did so improperly.
It turns out the trip wasn't a one-time event but rather part of a regular pattern.
In the first review of Andrews' longer-term campaign spending practices, the AP examined his campaign finance reports going back 10 years and found that the Democratic congressman began regular campaign-funded trips to California starting in 2007. By that time his daughter, Josie, now 17, was spending time in California for auditions, according to her biography on the Internet Movie Database.
At least four of Andrews' trips coincided with her recording sessions based on her tweets and web posts from her record label, Vendetta Entertainment.Click here
A New Jersey congressman has spent at least $97,000 in campaign money on at least 18 trips over the past five years to California, where his daughter has been pursuing a singing and acting career, The Associated Press found.
Campaign finance reports show U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews pulled in about $260,000 in donations from California residents and political actions committees during the period, apparently holding major fundraising events during about a half-dozen of the trips. It's impossible to tell from the records whether he met with donors on other visits. Federal campaign finance regulations allow campaign funds to be used for certain non-fundraising travel.
But campaign experts say that raising less than $3 per $1 spent on fundraising is a lower rate than normal for most candidates and raises questions about why he is making so many trips to California.
Andrews is not accused of any wrongdoing, and his campaign says that his expenditures in California were legitimate, in part because connections there have helped him raise money in other states.
A Washington watchdog group has urged federal election regulators to examine whether Andrews, who was first elected to the House in 1990, has been using campaign money for personal expenses in his California travels. It highlighted a November 2011 trip on which he spent nearly $12,000 in campaign funds, met with donors and raised at least $5,000 while he stayed at Beverly Hills Plaza hotel, hired limousine services for $1,400 and was photographed attending his daughter's recording session. The records do not say whether the campaign paid for her expenses, though Andrews, 54, says it never did so improperly.
It turns out the trip wasn't a one-time event but rather part of a regular pattern.
In the first review of Andrews' longer-term campaign spending practices, the AP examined his campaign finance reports going back 10 years and found that the Democratic congressman began regular campaign-funded trips to California starting in 2007. By that time his daughter, Josie, now 17, was spending time in California for auditions, according to her biography on the Internet Movie Database.
At least four of Andrews' trips coincided with her recording sessions based on her tweets and web posts from her record label, Vendetta Entertainment.Click here
