2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie funneled campaign cash to family members [View all]Turn CO Blue
(4,221 posts)Please create or include a comparison chart of the relative scale of this practice as abuse across multiple congressional (or local) campaigns, while comparing fair market value of skills or roles over a comparable period of time (normalized for number of months, inflation and value of the dollar)
Examples of a few questions that could be posed to expand the OP beyond a simplistic polemic:
Should nepotism be illegal, is it unethical, are there other professions with comparable ethics limits or prohibitions, how common is the practice, who is doing it and how can we compare and contrast this activity on a normalized scale, and what do ethics and oversight groups such as the Ethics Committee, CREW and the FEC offer as rules or guidance on this issue?
This could be a great topic for GD if approached in a more insightful and scholarly manner.
Here are the results of a study of Congressional family members hiring family members for campaign roles - which took all of one single second on the clock of Googling, and I include as an important part of the discussion that the OP omitted to include.
Please note: the high number of Democrats engaging in this common practice.
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82 members (40 Democrats and 42 Republicans) paid family members through their congressional offices, campaign committees and political action committees (PACs);
44 members (20 Democrats and 24 Republicans) have family members who lobby or are employed in government affairs;
90 members (42 Democrats and 48 Republicans) have paid a family business, employer, or associated nonprofit;
20 members (13 Democrats and 7 Republicans) used their campaign money to contribute to a family member's political campaign;
14 members (6 Democrats and 8 Republicans) charged interest on personal loans they made to their own campaigns;
38 members (24 Democrats and 14 Republicans) earmarked to a family business, employer, or associated nonprofit.
Top five representatives who paid family to work for them:
Rep. Alcee Hastings, (D-FL) paid his girlfriend $622,574.
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) paid his wife $512,293.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) paid her daughter and grandson a combined $495,650.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) paid six different relatives a combined $304,599.
Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) paid his wife $238,438.
Top five representative's payments or contributions to a family businesses or employer:
Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) paid her stepdaughter's company $408,818.
Rep. Waters paid her daughter's company $347,837.
Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) paid his daughter's company $250,000.
Rep. Jesse Jackson (D-IL) paid his wife's company $196,000.
Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) paid his sister's company and father's scholarship fund.