Political cash buys trips, tickets, giveaways

Analysis:

This article is a rather lengthy piece by newspaper standards and does contain quite a bit of information. The article points out various purchases made by state representatives with money from their campaigns for things such as football tickets, travel, car leases, and even livestock. The bulk of the article is devoted to mentioning specific cases of this type of spending behavior, quoting several state reps about these expenses as well as donors on their thoughts on the issue. Of all these cases mentioned, the most money involved in any of them is 2600 dollars and the article does point out that none of them are actually illegal, or unethical in any official sense of the word. The only critical voice mentioned in the article is Rich Robinson from the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, who calls the expenditures “questionable”.

One thing worth noting is that this article was accompanied by several charts, one listing who much money various state reps raised and how much came from PACs, another chart of the largest state PACs and how much they give, and a third box about how State Rep Kooiman has proposed a bill doubling the amount of money an individual may donate to a candidate. None of the issues raised by these charts were addressed by the article as the article was about how candidates spend money, the charts about how they get their money. This question of how they get there money, when juxtaposed with information such as how they voted, is very important information that readers should know if they are to be informed voters. One other thing worth noting that was not addressed in this article is the fact that Michigan is, according to the Center for Public integrity, one of three states that does not have a disclosure law. That means that in Michigan, State reps are not required to disclose their personal finances or investments in order to ensure against any possible conflict of interests.

Story:

Political cash buys trips, tickets, giveaways
Sunday, July 17, 2005By Steven Harmon

The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS — For a third straight year, University of Michigan football games will be on the house for some supporters of state Rep. Jerry Kooiman.

Kooiman and Rep. Bill Huizenga, for his second straight year, plan to dole out tickets they will pay for with money from their political action committees.

But Rep. Michael Sak, D-Grand Rapids, says he is getting out of the perk business. He bought two U-M season tickets for $570 in 2004 but now says he has repaid his campaign committee for them.

Sak also bought $36 hockey tickets for volunteers and an $11 ticket to a Tigers game for a volunteer, according to campaign finance documents covering 2003-2004.

“I’ve reconsidered my decision and reimbursed my campaign account with personal funds,” Sak said. “Just to close the books on the entire issue.”

Football isn’t every legislator’s bag. Others use their campaign funds for conferences — one West Michigan lawmaker traveled to Alaska last year — car leases, golf outings, even 4-H pigs.

To be sure, the expenditures are not illegal. Candidate PAC money is intended to go toward electing candidates or paying office expenses, according to Michigan campaign finance law.

But that can be broadly interpreted. Officeholders and candidates can claim that most of what they do promotes their candidacy.

“Ultimately, you’re responsible to your donors,” said Huizenga, R-Zeeland. “If people think I’m abusing their campaign donations, they’ll quit sending money. And that hasn’t happened.”

Donors don’t give so they can go to the football games, but to gain access to the power of an officeholder, said Rich Robinson of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Lansing. He called the football tickets a questionable use of money intended for campaign purposes.

“It would be difficult to say expenditures like these are truly necessary as a function of being an officeholder,” Robinson said.

Former Grand Rapids state Sen. Glenn Steil, now running two businesses in Florida, said dipping into campaign chests is like the old practice of using officeholder expense accounts, which were outlawed during the 1990s, when lawmakers were found to have used them for parties, game tickets and extra staff.

“It’s nonsense,” said Steil, a vocal opponent of officeholder expenses when he was in the Legislature from 1994 to 2002. “It’s not the intention of what giving to politicians is for. To buy tickets to U-M games, which they are already assured of getting — they already have a seat when they want one — is not what campaign donors are paying to get politicians re-elected for.”

Holly Hoats, of Caledonia, contributed $250 to Kooiman last year and said she has no problems with however Kooiman uses his contributions.

“It doesn’t bother me at all (that he used contributions for football tickets),” she said. “I view it like any other business. To win people over to your ideas, you try to entertain them.”

Legislators get a base salary of $79,650, along with extra stipends for leadership posts. House members also receive office expenses: $96,500 for majority Republicans and $94,500 for minority Democrats, which largely pay for staff salaries. Senate members get office allotments of $58,425, with another Senate account paying for staff salaries.

Lawmakers further are reimbursed for one round trip a week to their districts, along with in-district travel.

Kooiman, a Grand Rapids Republican, has bought four season tickets two years in a row for a total of $2,362, at a time when he was aiming for the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee chairman.

“I used them to build up support within my campaign for leadership,” he said. “And to develop friendships and relationships with incoming members. And it was a way to thank supporters for their involvement.”

Kooiman was passed over for the Appropriations chair earlier this year but elected speaker pro tem, the second in line to the speaker.

Huizenga, who failed in his pursuit of the speakership last fall, bought two U-M season tickets last year for $570 out of his campaign funds. He recently bought another pair of U-M season tickets.

One politician’s reasoning

“It’s no different than if I’m buying tickets to an Ottawa County Lincoln Day dinner,” he said. “You invite supporters or volunteers.”

Last year, he said, he didn’t attend any of the games, giving tickets to volunteers, supporters, staff members and, in one case, a lobbyist.

The gift to the lobbyist, he said, was just by chance; he met the lobbyist in line at a cafe after he had difficulty giving the tickets away.

He said ticket giveaways were legal and ethical.

“Legally, I could buy clothes — suits and ties,” Huizenga said. “Do I do that? No. If it’s anything you’re doing that promotes yourself in the advancement of your political office, that’s designated as campaign-related.”

No other Grand Rapids-area lawmaker bought season football tickets.

Senate Majority Leader Kenneth Sikkema, R-Wyoming, has used his leadership PAC money to pay for a car lease for the past two years rather than take state reimbursements.

Rep. Gary Newell’s most extravagant buy was a couple of 4-H pigs last year at the Ionia County youth meat sale for $863.75.

The Saranac Republican also paid $811.15 to Western Wats, a polling company, for automated calls out of Orem, Utah.

“They were all ‘vote for me’ calls,” Newell said.

An early candidate for the speakership and then Appropriations chairman last fall, Newell said it never occurred to him to cultivate support with game tickets.

“No football days,” said Newell, who also was co-chair of the House Republican Campaign Committee. “My primary goal was to get people elected.”

Newell said former Speaker Rick Johnson never opened a leadership fund, but got elected with his personal touch.

“I voted for him because early in my campaign, he made it to a couple of my fund-raisers, one at 7 in the morning in Hastings,” Newell said. “But there wasn’t any money or perks.”

Kooiman said schmoozing at high-profile events is a way of life in the capital.

“Do I like the fact that I had to raise money to obtain a leadership position in Lansing? No,” he said. “I’d prefer to have an election simply based on who you are, your experience and your qualifications. But that is a fairly naive way of looking at how things happen.”

Rep. Fulton Sheen, R-Plainwell, spent $2,600 in travel and lodging in 2003-2004, including $947 for a trip last year to Anchorage, Alaska, for a Council of State Governments conference.

It was one of seven conferences Sheen attended He also went to Boyne Mountain ski and golf resort, Crystal Mountain resort near Cadillac, and Washington, D.C.

Sheen said conference-hopping is an appropriate use of his campaign contributions. He attended a National Commissioners of Insurance and Legislators conference last weekend in Rhode Island. (His wife, Shirley, also went, but they paid for that separately.)

“Wherever you go, if it’s to learn about people, or fostering trade relations, or if you’re meeting with other legislators at conferences to network, all that pertains to what you’re doing as a legislator,” Sheen said.