June 17, 2009
-
News: Mass Governor CC Use Questionable
Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick, is on the hot seat for questionable use of his campaign committee's credit card. Governor Patrick is accused of charging over $85,000 to support travel expenses for he and his wife's advocacy of Barak Obama's presidential campaign. Credit card charges in question includes the couples travels to New York, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Colorado, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Additionally, Patrick flew his entire staff to Chicago on the night of the election on American Airlines and paid for their flight and meals at the Blue Water Grill with campaign funds. In October of 2008, the Governor also charged meals and miscellaneous expenses on his campaign committee's credit card for travels to Pennsylvania and Florida while campaigning for Obama.
In addition to Governor Patrick's travel expenses, travel expenses for the Governor's wife, Diane, were also charged to the campaign's credit card. The Office of Campaign and Political Finance records indicate that Patrick charged his wife's expenses to the Democratic Governor's Association Meeting in November 2008 as well as a $1,246 American Airlines ticket to Chicago. According to Steve Crawford, a spokesman for Patrick's political committee said that the credit card charges in question fall within the guidelines of campaign funding. According to the law, candidate campaign funds can pay for a spouse's travel expenses if he/she is an emissary of the campaign committee.
The Metrowest Daily News reported that Pam Wilmot, Executive Director for the Common Cause Massachusetts group said that candidate travel is an important entity that allows them to build relationships for future political means. However, Wilmot says "It is inappropriate for a candidate to pay for his wife's travel from campaign funds." According to Wilmot, the credit card charges on the campaign committee's account for Diane Patrick's travel expenses is questionable and campaign funds should not be spent on personal expenses. State election offices are responsible for monitoring candidate spending and are a matter of public record. Additional details can be found on the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission web site at http://www.eac.gov/index_html1.