California Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu uses donor funds in interesting ways, For example, his $50,000 donation to his alma mater Stanford University, And his son is a sophomore in high school.
He also used donor money to donate to his wife’s school board election committee. Since 2018, Ted Lieu, who represents Congress, has donated more than $15,000 to Betty Lieu’s school board.
Mrs. Lieu was first elected as the trustee of Torrance Unified School District in 2018. Ted’s campaign made her first donation to her on November 26, 2018, with a donation of US$888.
On January 4, 2019, the $5,000 donation and January 15, 2019, the $2,000 donation came from Ted’s federal campaign account.
Then on July 3, 2019:
Then there is $2,000 on March 31, 2021.
Two of the donations are listed as Betty Lieu of the school board in 2018, and two are listed as Betty Lieu of the school board in 2019, but the accounts are one and the same. Ted’s treasurer should know this, because he is also Betty’s treasurer.
In addition, Ted used his campaign email account to raise funds for Betty’s school board campaign. These emails were sent in 2020.
The Federal Election Law allows federal candidates to use their email lists or other campaign resources to raise funds for other candidates and transfer campaign funds to other candidates, but prohibits them from converting campaign funds for personal use or using campaign funds for gifts or Donations are provided to family members in accordance with the Federal Election Law and the House of Representatives Ethics. From the section of the House Ethics website on charitable donations and transferring campaign funds to another candidate (emphasis mine):
The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) generally allows members to donate campaign funds to any entity described in Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code (including charitable or educational organizations or government entities), provided that they are converted into individuals through donations use……
[I]If it is legal under other circumstances, the campaign funds may be transferred to another candidate or invested in future political campaigns. Again, the premise is that the funds are not converted for personal use.
Regarding the use of campaign funds as gifts:
Campaign funds are allowed to be used for gifts or donations only when expenditures are used for real campaign or political purposes, and in this regard, members are not allowed to use campaign funds to provide gifts or donations to family members.
These donations and solicitations clearly violate the spirit and letter of the FECA and the House of Representatives Code of Ethics. But there is more.
In Ted’s email to supporters, he said:
Betty still has some campaign debt in the first game of 2018. Helping her to pay off her debts will greatly promote her re-election campaign.
How can one accumulate so much debt in school board elections that an email request from a member of Congress is needed to repay the debt? Betty Lieu is not an unknown number in Torrance; Ted has been an elected official or representative of the city since 2002. Moreover, according to a report in October 2018 by the local newspaper Daily Breeze in Torrance, most school board candidates only raised and spent thousands of dollars (Highlights added):
According to financial disclosures, most candidates in the campaign raised approximately $1,500 each.
Liu, meanwhile, Only received 600 US dollars this year-but lent myself 35,000 US dollarsRecords show that as of September 22, she has spent nearly $10,000.
Records show that Lieu actually borrowed $60,000 from himself to run for the school board.
Yes, her personal fundraising activities did not go well at the time, but due to her husband’s campaign and the cash injection from his donors (some of whom do not live anywhere near Torrance), she was able to repay herself 60,000 23,000 of the U.S. dollars.
For example, she received US$5,000 from Shau-Wai Lam, the honorary chairman of Dah Chong Hong Motors and the summit of New Jersey; US$2500 came from Chester Pipkin of Stateline, Nevada, CEO of Belkin Int’l, and the other US$2500 came from his ex-wife ; 1,000 US dollars from James Rosenwald of Rolling Hills, California; and 1,000 US dollars from Carl Alberti from Los Angeles. They both donated thousands of dollars to Ted Lieu’s campaign. Some of Betty’s small dollar and out-of-state donors were also donors to the Ted campaign.
In addition to Ted Lieu’s main ethical and legal issues of turning campaign funds into personal use, do Ted’s donors know that their donations to his campaign and Betty will repay the loans that Betty allegedly provided to themselves?
For a long time, profiting from the status of a member of Congress has been a problem, especially when it comes to converting campaign funds into personal use.is having a main activities End the practice of “hiring” spouses as a means of money laundering; Representatives Mike Gallagher and Tom Tiffany recently introduced a bill to end this practice:
“For a long time, legislators from both parties have participated in an ethically dubious practice of collecting campaign funds by’hiring’ their spouses and laundering money as campaign-related expenses,” The representative said. Tiffany“It is outrageous and inappropriate for members of Congress to convert campaign donations into personal funds in this way. It fuels public perceptions of corruption and undermines public trust in Congress. It must end. No matter which party, we are all It should be possible to agree that running for political office should not be part of the family’s wealth plan.”
It’s hard to see the difference between sending campaign donations to a spouse’s campaign and laundering money by “hiring” a spouse to do nothing. Now is the time for the House Ethics Committee and the FEC to investigate these donations.
