(Photo of Rep. Terri A. Sewell by Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call)
A watchdog publication published details of reports filed by several U.S. representatives that indicated they had “[paid] for membership dues to luxurious social clubs from their campaign coffers, expenditures the Federal Election Commission automatically deems as prohibited personal use.” But many of the representatives explained that the filings were related to campaign events and had been corrected to be properly categorized.
Roll Call, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog publication, published a report with the headline, “House Lawmakers Use Campaign Money for Membership Dues to Plush Clubs” that included details about U.S. representatives “paying for membership dues to luxurious social clubs from their campaign coffers, expenditures the Federal Election Commission [FEC} automatically deems as prohibited personal use.”
Filings on campaign expenditures are required every quarter and the FEC and federal law prohibit members from using campaign money for personal use, including spending those funds on dues to country clubs or other organizations without a political affiliation, Roll Call noted. Lawmakers can spend campaign money at social clubs for specific campaign events, but “this exception does not cover payments made to maintain unlimited access to such a facility, even if access is maintained to facilitate fundraising activity,” according to the FEC rule. “The exception is limited to payments for the costs of a specific fundraising event.”
Specific examples cited in the Roll Call report included:
- The campaign of Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-Ala.) spent more than $2,800 on dues to City Club Birmingham and $222 in similar fees to The City Club of Washington, both owned by ClubCorp.
Sewell has spent just under $9,000 overall at the social club in Birmingham since 2017, Roll Call reported, adding that the club “offers an Enomatic wine dispenser, upscale bar, dining and fitness facilities” and describes itself as “the premier business and social center for the city’s professional elite.” Additional campaign money was spent on fundraisers and meals.
Representatives for Sewell did not respond to a request for comment, Roll Call reported.
- Rep. Daniel Crenshaw (R-Texas) disclosed more than $3,200 in membership dues payments to ClubCorp since 2019, Roll Call reported. Justin Discigil, Crenshaw’s Communications Director, said the filings were misreported.
“Our campaign does not spend resources on membership dues,” Discigil told Roll Call. “This was a clerical error and an amendment has been filed to correct the FEC website. Those expenditures were for campaign events and unrelated to membership dues.”
- The campaign of Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) spent $248 in membership dues to the Metropolitan Club New York, “an exclusive private club nestled in the heart of Manhattan,” Roll Call reported, adding that “the high-end club requires that men wear a jacket and tie; women must wear dresses or comparable attire. The club’s first president was J.P. Morgan.”
Additionally, Roll Call reported, French Hill for Arkansas, the lawmaker’s campaign committee, has spent more than $7,500 on food, drink, lodging, meetings and fundraising events since 2016 at the Metropolitan Club New York and its counterpart club in Washington, D.C., The Metropolitan Club of Washington, described on its website as “one of Washington’s oldest and most valued private institutions,” Roll Call noted.
As part of its report, Roll Call also noted that “[Hill] was recently appointed to the Congressional Oversight Commission, an entity charged with examining the spending of the multitrillion-dollar coronavirus relief package.”
When contacted by Roll Call, J.R. Davis, a spokesperson for Hill’s campaign, replied in an e-mail that “An expense of $248.60 paid on April 26, 2019, was listed as membership dues in New York in error rather than the correct description of a fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C., and an amended report has been filed with the FEC.”
- Rep. Al Lawson (D-Fla.) spent $221 in campaign funds on membership fees at the Governors Club, “an upscale private club in Tallahassee, Fla. near the state Capitol [that] offers ‘cigar dinners’ and ‘champagne tastings,’ ” Roll Call reported. Since 2016, Lawson has expended more than $3,600 on food, drinks and fundraisers at the club, Roll Call reported.
Roll Call then reported that after it contacted Rep. Lawson’s campaign organization for comment, “someone identified only as ‘Communications Director’ ” replied in an e-mail: “Rep. Lawson maintains a Governor’s Club membership for the purpose of cultivating potential donors. The entry in question was likely for a campaign-related business meal.”
Roll Call’s report also included comments from Andrew Herman, a lawyer who represents lawmakers in FEC and congressional ethics investigations. If a member of Congress makes an effort to correct misreporting quickly, the matter usually won’t be taken up by investigators, Herman said.
“But if they’re trying to get donors to pay for memberships to country clubs, and they were doing that on purpose in contravention of the regulations, then that certainly could be an issue,” Herman said.
Daniel Weiner, a former FEC attorney and deputy director of the Election Reform Program at the Brennan Center, told Roll Call, “You’re not supposed to be using campaign funds to just pay your club membership.”
It also matters, Weiner said, whether the membership dues are recurring, such as was the case with both Reps. Sewell and Crenshaw each showing more than one expenditure for dues to their respective clubs.
Expenditures could have been misreported as dues when they were spent on a facility fee to hold a campaign event, Weiner added.
“One of the things that this does suggest is the importance of having a good campaign lawyer,” he said.
Roll Call also reported that it contacted Tom Rust, a spokesman for the House Ethics Committee, and William Beaman, a spokesman for the Office of Congressional Ethics, for the article, but neither had any comment.
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