Pat Toomey
Sen. Pat Toomey is up for reelection in 2016. The Pennsylvania Republican is shown here at the 2014 Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Harrisburg.
(Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com, file)
A government watchdog group is taking Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) to task for having, it says, taken advantage of his official position to benefit himself and his family.
In its 2014 report, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, ranks the fiscal conservative among senators who have spent the most of their campaign contributions money to reimburse themselves for travel and other expenses, as well as to pay wages for family.
In the past year, Toomey's campaign committee, the analysis shows, paid his wife more than $10,000 as a consultant; the committee and PAC also reimbursed Toomey and his wife for more than $178,000 worth of expenses.
"Sen. Toomey seems to believe in fiscal austerity only for other people. You'd think someone who so zealously advocates for frugality would be more cautious about spending donors' money," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW.
In a statement e-mailed to PennLive, a Toomey spokesman said: "I have no idea how CREW, a left-leaning organization, came up with this report or these numbers so I am not going to guess. What we do know is that Senator Toomey follows all the Senate ethics rules and federal laws. The campaign does cover a substantial portion of travel expenses that according to the Senate rules could be charged to the taxpayer. Senator Toomey refuses to do that."
That is, in fact, correct: Toomey is perfectly within his legal boundaries.
Federal law extends to members of Congress broad discretion to use campaign funds in any legal way that advances their candidacy.
"As long as their dealings with companies that they have interest in are at arms length and there is value received, the (Federal Election Commission) says it's fine," said Stanley Brand, distinguished fellow in law and government at Penn State Dickinson School of Law. "It's not unusual for member candidates to use their own companies and if you comb the records of all 535 members and their opponents, I'm sure you would see a lot of that."
According to Toomey's latest filing with the FEC, he has about $5.4 million in campaign funds at his disposal. The first-term lawmaker is up for reelection in 2016.
CREW based its analysis on reviews of personal financial disclosure reports, available via the, FEC, the Center for Responsive Politics and LegiStorm.
The analysis shows that Toomey's campaign committee and leadership PAC have paid two companies - Team Capital Bank, which he co-founded and owns stock in and N-35727, Inc., an airplane leasing company he owns - more than $166,000. His campaign committee also paid money to Club for Growth, a conservative, anti-tax group for which Toomey served as president from 2005 to 2009.
Toomey was ranked third highest, behind Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), who was reimbursed $481,456, and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) who was reimbursed $220,187.
The report provided analysis on 67 senators, regardless of party affiliation.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) is not named in the report. Among Democrats noted, however, CREW includes Nevada's Sen. Harry Reid in the running for worst offenders.
Sloan said she particularly found troubling reimbursements made to Toomey for use of his airplane.
"You have to wonder how much of that money is going back to his pocket," she said. "This is a guy who is big on preaching fiscal austerity but seems to find ways to use his position to line his pockets."
Federal law does not prohibit members of Congress from hiring spouses or relatives to fill campaign posts.
Brand said he did not find the total amount cited for Toomey - $178,000 - particularly troubling.
"In my experience and from what I've seen in 35 years of doing this, those are not amounts that strike one of a magnitude to create any suspicion," he said.
A 501(c)(3) advocacy group, CREW has called for wide reform on campaign finance law, including: banning lawmakers from using leadership PAC campaign funds to pay for travel, clothing, golf club fees; and prohibiting campaign committees and leadership PACs from hiring relatives of candidates.
"It is not as if they are a neutral bystander," Brand said. "They have a point of view and they are promoting it through these reports and how they scrutinize candidates."