DEMOCRAT DIRTY LAUNDRY: Feds Fine Rangel $23,000 for Campaign Finance Violations
New York Democrat “Effectively Accepted Campaign Contributions Beyond the Legal Limit”
SPIN CYCLE: Then-Speaker Pelosi Promised That Democrats Would “Demand The Highest Ethics From Every Public Servant”:
“Our goal is to restore accountability, honesty and openness at all levels of government. To do so, we will create and enforce rules that demand the highest ethics from every public servant, sever unethical ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, and establish clear standards that prevent the trading of official business for gifts.” (Nancy Pelosi’s “A New Direction for America,” Page 21)
RINSE CYCLE: Charlie Rangel’s (D-NY) Ethics Problems Continue After The Federal Election Commission’s General Counsel Determined He Violated Campaign Finance Limits By Using A Rent-Controlled Apartment As His Campaign Office:
The commission’s general counsel found that Mr. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem who has been in office since 1971, and his campaign effectively accepted campaign contributions beyond the legal limit when he leased the rent-stabilized apartment at a price below market rate from the owner, according to the documents.
The case grew out of a 2008 report in The New York Times that showed Mr. Rangel was able to lease four rent-stabilized apartments in the Lenox Terrace luxury apartment complex in Harlem even as tenants across New York City were being evicted from such apartments.
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Instead, the findings focused on a one-bedroom apartment on the 10th floor that he used as a campaign office for two of his political committees, despite city and state guidelines that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used solely as a primary residence.
Because the fourth apartment was rent-stabilized, Mr. Rangel paid $630 per month, while similar market-rate units in the building rented for $1,700 a month and higher, according to The Times. Shortly after the leasing arrangement became public, Mr. Rangel moved his campaign office out of the apartment.
In an e-mail on Monday, Hannah Kim, a spokeswoman for Mr. Rangel, said, “People settle not because they’re guilty but because they don’t want to go through the arduous process and expense to show they’re not guilty.”
The commission’s general counsel also found fault with Fourth Lenox Terrace Associates, the owner of the building. It said that in allowing Mr. Rangel’s political committees to pay less than the market rate, the owner made “excessive in-kind contributions” to the committees.
A phone message left Monday evening with the agent for the owner was not immediately answered.
The findings resolve a case brought by National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group in Washington, which filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in 2008, charging that the discounted rent was in essence an illegal contribution. The commission’s report is yet another blow for Mr. Rangel, a prominent figure in New York, who was censured in 2010 on grounds that he brought discredit to the House.
He was censured after the House Ethics Committee found him guilty of 11 counts of ethical violations, including failure to pay taxes, improper solicitation of fund-raising donations and failure to report his personal income accurately.
Short of expulsion, the censure was the most severe penalty the House could impose on Mr. Rangel; he was the first House member in nearly three decades to face such punishment, and his standing in Congress was severely damaged as a result of the scandal.
Mr. Rangel’s ethical problems went beyond the questions over his acceptance of the rent-stabilized apartments.
In the months following the reports about the leasing arrangements, he faced scrutiny over other issues, including his failure to pay taxes on rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic and his failure to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets on financial disclosure forms.
The fund-raising he did for a City College school being built in his honor also became part of the ethics inquiry, after he used Congressional stationery and postage to request donations. In addition, he asked for contributions from companies and executives with business before Congress.
Eventually, Mr. Rangel gave up his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, a position he had coveted for much of his career. (Raymond Hernandez, “Rangel and His Campaign to Pay $23,000 Fine Over Misuse of Rent Law,” The New York Times, 3/27/12)
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Feds Fine Rangel $23,000 for Campaign Finance Violations http://ow.ly/9U3LT #demdirtylaundry