Visclosky Reviews His Campaigns Amid Donations Flap

A House Democrat from Indiana has conducted an extensive audit of his political committees, after a lobbying firm that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaigns closed down amid a federal investigation.

Rep. Peter J. Visclosky, whose ties to the PMA Group have come under scrutiny since the FBI raided its offices in the fall, amended half a dozen reports recently filed with the Federal Election Commission in an effort to properly identify contributors.

But Visclosky’s review has not answered a key question in the PMA investigation: the rationale for thousands of dollars in donations to him and other lawmakers from a golf marketing director and a sommelier at a Florida resort, each of whom was once listed as a PMA official on FEC reports.

Instead of returning those contributions, Visclosky gave $18,000 to the U.S. Treasury last month. The amount matches donations received from the golf executive, the sommelier and a 75-year-old California technology executive who told The Washington Post two months ago that he had never heard of Visclosky. The lawmaker’s legislative office and campaign committee did not reply to repeated inquiries for comment. Visclosky aides also did not explain why the $18,000 was given to the Treasury, which has no claim to tainted campaign donations.

Read more: (Paul Kane, “Lawmaker Reviews His Campaigns Amid Donations Flap,” The Washington Post, Thursday, 4/16/09)