Welp.
Rep. Wesley Hunt
The House Ethics Committee on Monday cleared two Texas Republican congressmen — Wesley Hunt of Houston and Ronny Jackson of Amarillo — for violating campaign finance law by allegedly spending campaign money for personal use.
In a statement, the committee said it unanimously decided to close the investigations, including ones against two other representatives for the same accusations. The committee said in several investigations it resolved Monday, there was evidence that the member’s campaigns did not fully comply with campaign finance standards, as well as reporting or recordkeeping requirements for campaign spending.
“However, there was no evidence that any member intentionally misused campaign funds for their personal benefit,” the committee said in a statement.
The investigation began in March when the Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan group of professional staffers, sent campaign finance reports from the two representatives to the committee for investigation. They were accused of using campaign funds for private club memberships. Jackson spent nearly $12,000 since 2020 on membership at the Amarillo Club, and Hunt spent over $74,000 between April 2022 and January 2024 at the Post Oak Hotel, including membership fees at its exclusive Oak Room club.
[…]
The ethics committee also said the existing law and guidance from the Federal Election Commission is “often ambiguous” and provides gray areas of spending. The committee updated guidance on personal use of campaign funds and related recordkeeping requirements. In the statement, the committee said it provided relevant members with a copy of the updated guidance, as well as specific findings and recommendations for their campaign activity.
See here for the background. I did not expect much to come of this, and so as such I am not disappointed. I do think there are some gray areas of campaign finance law and regulation, and thus places where one could plausibly and in good faith interpret the rules to mean different things, and I can believe that’s what happened here. There’s nothing stopping Congress from clarifying those laws, or compelling the FEC to better define its rules, so perhaps Reps. Hunt and Jackson can use this experience to do something positive. Yeah, I know, and I’d like a pony, too. Whatever. Point is, this sort of thing doesn’t have to happen, we – and by “we” I mean “Congress”, mostly the Republicans in Congress who like that the rules are chaotic and ambiguous – allow it to be this way. If the members who have been on the business end of this don’t feel the need to do something about it, maybe the voters can be persuaded to elect someone who does. The Chron has more.
George Washington;
“The best defense is a good offense.”
Why not go after sales taxes, which go to the state? They are tied to inflation, so the state has been getting surpluses. Push to lower the sales tax.
Why are Democrats always playing defense?