FEC allows Visclosky to use funds for staff
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators ruled for the first time Thursday that campaign funds can be used to help pay the legal bills of current and former congressional staffers.
The Federal Election Commission decided that Rep. Pete Visclosky's campaign committee could be tapped to pay these legal expenses. The Indiana Democrat is under investigation for his ties to a now-defunct lobbying firm, PMA Group. He and members of his current and former staff have been subpoenaed by federal investigators.
The agency previously had allowed campaign funds to be used only for legal expenses of officeholders or candidates. But this time around, the commissioners voted 5-1 in favor of allowing the practice.
FEC Chairman Steven T. Walther was the sole member to vote against the advisory opinion, saying he was concerned that there was not enough information to determine in some cases whether a former staff's legal bills would have been incurred independent of their work for Visclosky.
Another commissioner, Donald F. McGhan, voted to allow the funds to be used, but said that using campaign funds to pay for legal fees raised some ethical questions.
"Someday could you have someone think through who is actually paying the legal fee and who is the client and have potential conflicts? Yes, but I'm not sure that's really our job to decide this," he added.
"It's a concern. I just think it's not a concern the commission can address," McGhan said.
Several campaign finance lawyers said the FEC was on firm legal ground in approving this use of funds and said that it was not in the commission's purview to draw ethical lines for attorneys.
"There's a question of legal ethics, not campaign finance law, regarding representation. But that's governed by the ethics rules for lawyers, not the FEC," said Jan W. Baran, a lawyer with Wiley Rein law firm.
Baran said the ruling means that staffers and former staffers will now be able to access campaign funds for legal bills, but that the principle used to determine eligibility has been well established in previous cases before the FEC. He cited several instances where members of Congress have been allowed to use their campaign funds for legal expenses incurred as a result of holding office.
Under the FEC's ruling, Visclosky's current and former staff can use campaign funds only if the bills needing payment are a direct result of their work for Visclosky and would not have been incurred under other circumstances.
Visclosky had more than $950,000 in his campaign account at the end of June.
David St. John, a spokesman for Visclosky, said he did not know how many members of Visclosky's current and former staff would be eligible to use the campaign funds.
"Congressman Visclosky intends for this to cover those who are or were on this staff this year when the matter became known," he said.
He declined to say whether that included Rich Kaelin, a chief of staff in Visclosky's congressional office who left to work for PMA Group, or Charles Brimmer, who resigned as Visclosky's chief of staff earlier this year.
The chairman of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, Visclosky is also a member of the Defense appropriations subcommittee. He has close ties to PMA Group, a firm founded by Paul Magliochetti, a former staff member of the Defense appropriations subcommittee.
Once a top-notch lobbying house that specialized in securing lucrative military contracts for its clients, PMA has disintegrated while a federal investigation is conducted into allegations that it funnels donations to lawmakers through so-called straw donors.
So far, the subpoenas of Visclosky and his staff are the only public sign of the PMA Group investigation spreading to Capitol Hill. But other members, including Democratic Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, who heads the Defense appropriations subcommittee, also have strong links to the firm.
PMA Group and its clients also gave Visclosky significant support. One out of every $5 in political donations Visclosky took in during the last seven years came from PMA employees or its clients.
At the same time, Visclosky has helped secure more than $23 million for the company's clients.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
comments