Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Star Picks Up On Advance Indiana's CREW Report On Burton

You read it here first, but now the Star has followed up with a story of its own late today on a CREW report showing that U.S. Rep. Dan Burton (R) had made substantial payments to his daughter from campaign funds over the past three election cycles. The $143,000 paid to Burton's daughter was the tenth highest amount a member of Congres paid to a member of his own family according to the Star. The online Star report reads:

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives paid relatives nearly $3.5 million in campaign funds during the past six years, a USA Today report said.

Among those receiving the most money was a daughter of U.S. Rep. Dan Burton, a Republican who represents suburban Indianapolis, according to a report from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington watchdog group.

Danielle Sarkins received $143,900 - which placed her sixth in a list of the top 10 individual family members who received the most campaign funds from members of Congress from 2001-06, according to the watchdog group.The Federal Election Commission has ruled that such payments are not illegal as long as family members are paid fair market value.

But the payments can create the appearance that members of Congress are using their positions “as a profit center for the family,” Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor who heads the watchdog group, told USA Today."

A member of Congress would not be allowed to put that family member on their office payroll," she said. "The logic should be the same. If they can't put them on the official payroll, why should they put them on the campaign payroll?"
Dr. John McGoff's campaign wasted no time pouncing on the issue. He released this press release today. McGoff says:

“Once again, we’re hearing another story about Dan Burton, which should cause voters to raise their eyebrows,” said McGoff. “Paying family members with campaign contributions may be legal, but it gives the outward appearance of abusing the system. It certainly brings up a lot of ethical questions.”

“It’s no wonder that recent polls show that Congress’ approval rating has sunk to less than 20%,” said McGoff. “Whether it is putting family members on the payroll, missing important committee hearings about injured troops, or skipping a week of votes to play golf with celebrities, Dan Burton just doesn’t instill the type of trust Hoosiers should have in their Congressman.”

Since announcing his candidacy, Dr. McGoff has emphasized the need to restore integrity in Congress.

“This is just another example of why Hoosiers don’t trust their elected officials,” he said.
I'm glad I could be of service to the McGoff campaign. Now, if they would only send me the press release next time so I don't have to fetch it from Taking Down Words. That would seem like the polite thing to do. And to think someone over at his campaign is getting paid for my free work. Life as it is as a blogger.

8 comments:

Wilson46201 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Gary R. Welsh said...

Wilson, for a person who is the first to yell libel, you're pretty quick to cast aspersions about other public figures, which I'm guessing you can't prove. So I'll help you out here and delete your comment.

Anonymous said...

How about helping us ALL out and deleting him permanently?

It's getting to be heavy lifting, sifting through his twisted rewrites of logic.

Then again, it's like a good crossword. Mental gymnastics.

Wilson46201 said...

Perhaps you could dig out from the old Indpls Star stories the lurid details about Danny's previous campaign manager. In some ways, Danny is actually cleaning up his act by putting his daughter on his political payroll!

Gary R. Welsh said...

As opposed to Julia Carson's former campaign manager--the one she helped get a job as the head of the ATC's excise police and who wound up enjoying the strippers in the backroom of a local strip club so much he compromised his job and was fired by Gov. O'Bannon.

garyj said...

Don't delete Wilson forever. i get a good laugh at his logic.
Wilson is an intelligent individual with his priorities in the wrong place. He has had one too many drinks with someone and it has effected his judgement.

Anonymous said...

Gary is funny. If only alcohol were the problem....

Anonymous said...

Many people who own their own businesses hire family to work for them. Because they trust those people with their money, their future, and many other things. Family is usually the most loyal and trustworthy people we know. So why not employ those people to work in your best interest. How is it okay for John Q Public to employ family members but not okay for politicians family to work for them? I have a bigger problem with the mudslinging that goes on in politics. Our children are to watch and learn from our leaders, but yet our leaders/future leaders come election time start mudslinging and getting just mean and hateful publically and our kids are supposed to learn what exactly from that? How to name call? How to be hurtful? I wish that in future elections the media and the politicians, and i am not even talking about this race, but in all elections would learn to run straight laced campaigns that stick to the facts that have to do with politics.