Spending Campaign Cash: Mainstream Media Style

We've been looking into how Texas legislators spend their campaign cash, which has apparently prompted another mainstream media outlet to do the same. First it was channel 2, KTRH, here in Houston looking at our area lawmakers (their report can be viewed here), and now it's the Dallas Morning News doing the same.

Are legislators using campaign cash to bankroll a cushy lifestyle? My answer is many of them appear to be doing just that. One way to get away with this is by hiding behind mysteriously described "reimbursements" to all sorts of people, including themselves, and unidentified credit card expenditures, often in tens of thousands of dollars.

The credit card problem is particularly troubling. This is straight from the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) Rules:

If the expenditure was by credit card, enter the name of the vendor who sold you the goods or services, not the name of the credit card issuer.

Why is this so important? Transparency. This from Tim Sorrel, TEC spokesman (in the DMN article):

The ethics commission "says somebody reading the report should be able to know what goods or services were purchased or leased," Mr. Sorrell said. And all reports of expenditures by credit card must identify the actual vendor, not just the credit card company, he said.

It's not enough for legislators to say that the TEC rules are confusing. The rules on credit cards are among the clearest of the Texas Ethics Commission rules.

Rafael Anchia, a Democratic representative from Dallas, had this to say in the DMN article about his over $18,000 in credit card expenditures improperly reported over the past two years:

Mr. Anchia, who paid off Visa bills, gave specific information about what the purchases were for but listed the credit card company instead of the actual vendors. He said he intends to file a bill this session to provide mandatory ethics training for state legislators to prevent other such "innocuous mistakes."

"There are a lot of little rules that people have trouble keeping track of, including people who spend a lot of time on it, like me," Mr. Anchia said.

Mistakes are one thing, and I agree legislatures need training on the TEC rules, but the point is that if someone is simply putting Visa or American Express as the vendor, then it can certainly appear as if they are using campaign cash for personal use, via their credit cards. Rep. John Davis (R-Clear Lake) corrected many of his campaign finance reports after complaints were filed against him, and indeed took out many expenditures that must have been for personal use (what other explanation is there?).

Rep. Anchia is in a crowded field of legislators who we've blogged about for incorrectly reporting credit card expenses: Rep. Buddy West, Rep. Vicki Truitt, Rep. Allan Ritter, Rep. Peggy Hamric, Sen. Craig Estes, Sen. Jane Nelson, Sen. John Whitmire and Speaker Craddick. Just this small subset of legislators have over $200,000 in credit card expenses with no vendor revealed over the past two years. I'm not accusing any of them of hiding behind their credit card expenditures to finance a cushy lifestyle, but by breaking the Texas Ethics Commission rules, there is no way of knowing.

And, this is the tip of the iceberg. Trust me on this.

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