Lawmakers pay wives with campaign donations

[sonias]

AAS 5/26/08
Lawmakers pay wives with campaign donations
When ethics complaints were filed last year, state representatives reacted differently.

When ethics complaints were filed last year accusing state Reps. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, and Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, of illegally paying their wives with campaign donations, they reacted differently.

Eissler admitted he was wrong, stopped paying his wife to run his legislative office and said he had agreed with the Texas Ethics Commission to pay back the $52,000 out of his pocket.

Isett chose to fight the complaint. He stopped paying his and his wife's accounting company to manage the campaign's books but began paying a separate company that she created in response to the ethics complaint. And he upped the amount, from $36,300 over the previous 2½ years to $39,158 last year, or half of every dollar he raised in 2007.

Critics say Isett is testing the legal limits in a way that could highlight a loophole — paying a spouse's company — for other lawmakers to use.

(snip)
Craig McDonald, executive director of Texans for Public Justice, a group that advocates tougher campaign finance laws, said it appears Isett might have found a loophole to use campaign money to help support his family.

"When you depend on the money from lobbyists to put food on your family's table, it's hard to say 'no' when they come looking for your vote," McDonald said. "What Isett has set up is merely a charade."

Not surprised at Isett's response. Isett's response is exactly why you need stronger finance laws in Texas. Representatives like Isett will just push through another loophole. :grr:


Sonia

[Baby Snooks]

1. Well they can run for office and help us...

If the lobbyists want to help put food on tables in return for votes maybe they should just run for office and help us and that way they don't have to worry about buying a politician or about us filing ethics complaints. That way, well, everyone's happy. Except the politicians that the lobbyists won't need anymore.

Texas has become such a joke. As for the Texas Republican Party, it's motto obviously is "Corrupt and Proud of It."