Lawmaker Defends PAC Fees Paid to Wife

[spindrifter]

By Jonathan Weisman and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 11, 2006

In the past two years, campaign and political action committees controlled by Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) paid ever-larger commissions to his wife's one-person company and spent tens of thousands of dollars on gifts at stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany and a Ritz-Carlton day spa.

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Doolittle's wife, Julie, a professional fundraiser, has collected 15 percent of all contributions to Doolittle's leadership PAC and additional commissions on contributions to his campaign committee -- a total of nearly $140,000 since 2003, according to Federal Election Commission records.

"I don't know if there's anything comparable," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a watchdog group that called last month for an investigation of Doolittle by the House ethics committee. "If this is okay, it is a road map for how to convert substantial sums of campaign money to personal use."

<snip>

Kenneth A. Gross, a campaign finance lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, said "personal use" restrictions that govern campaign committees do not apply to leadership PACs, which lawmakers set up largely to help other candidates fund their campaigns. Because of the lack of regulations, leadership PAC expenditures have regularly generated controversy.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/10/AR2006071001164.html

[dubeskin]

1. I hate that ASS!!!

Please make him resign. Then Charlie Brown can take our district back! Please, please, please get rid of Doolittle, who like his name says, does little.