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Sunday, June 04, 2006
Law - Pennslyvania legislative expenses; Indiana Daily Insight blogger quoted
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a long story today on Pennsylvania's election law and campaign expenses. Some quotes:
Pennsylvania's election law is so broad it allows legislators to spend money on just about anything, a study by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review found. * * *The thousands of dollars spent on trips and entertainment "contributed to and will continue to contribute to the outcome of my elections," [Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel] and [his chief of staff, Brian Preski] said in response to written questions from the Trib. * * *
What's unusual about Perzel's campaign is the amount -- $700,000 -- in reimbursements to legislative staffers assisting his campaign. They assisted on their own time, Perzel said.
Preski, an attorney, is paid $160,000 by state taxpayers to oversee Perzel's legislative staff. In 2005, the campaign paid him a $56,000 salary, and in 2004 and 2005 reimbursed him a combined $264,000 for expenses ranging from bottled water to the Vegas trips and the Super Bowls.
Preski's reimbursements, documented in more than 2,300 receipts reviewed by the Trib, far exceed those paid by campaigns to aides of other legislative leaders in Pennsylvania.
The receipts provide a rare look inside a financially flush, high-profile campaign -- one that cut more than $700,000 in reimbursement checks to family, friends and legislative staffers as some Republicans across the state were beginning what would become a struggle for survival.
Perzel, who helped orchestrate last year's later-repealed legislative pay raise, escaped a primary election challenge May 16, when voters defeated 11 of his House Republican colleagues. * * *
Legislative staffers often perform campaign work on what they say is personal time. Yet, experts were stunned at the $700,000 Perzel's campaign funneled through staffers.
"That's incredible to me," said Robert Stern, director of the nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, and co-author of California's strict campaign spending guidelines. * * *
Edward D. Feigenbaum, an Indiana attorney who wrote the Federal Election Commission's guide to state election laws, said the amount of money changing hands raises questions about the Perzel-Preski arrangement.
"When you're looking at amounts that high it also calls into question what master they are serving. Are they serving the candidate first, or the elected official?" Feigenbaum said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 4, 2006 06:05 PM
Posted to General Law Related