OH Rep Reimbursed Himself, Paid Wife from Campaign Funds

Colorado Springs Independent: US Rep Doug “Lamborn raised $590,021 for this 2014 campaign, 55 percent of which came from political action committees. He spent $463,059. A payment of $2,772, made to himself, is the one in question.”

“Other payments from Lamborn’s campaign account include $3,545 for mileage reimbursement, which translates to nearly 6,330 miles using the federal reimbursement rate of 56 cents per mile. Most of that expense, $2,698, was claimed during 2014. That equates to about 4,817 miles, which would be the equivalent of about 51 trips from Colorado Springs to Buena Vista — roughly the east-to-west span of the Fifth Congressional District.”

“Another $13,946 went to Lamborn’s wife, Jean Lamborn, for accounting services, bookkeeping, administrative consulting and campaign management. (His campaign paid her $33,297 in the 2012 campaign cycle for “salary” and administrative accounting, plus expenses.)”

OH City Proactively Looks into Campaign Finances from Past Two Municipal Elections after Oversight Concerns Raised

“The city of Akron will hire an outside attorney to look at the campaign finances of mayoral and council candidates in the past two municipal elections.

“The attorney will look for any violations of Akron’s campaign finance rules, including the city’s contribution limits.

“‘If the outside attorney determines that a violation exists, the city will take appropriate measures to enforce the law,’ Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and council President Garry Moneypenny said in a joint letter Monday to council Clerk Bob Keith.”

“The city has never before asked an outside entity to review campaign finances. Plusquellic and Moneypenny are taking this step after questions were raised during a public hearing last Monday about the oversight of the city’s campaign finance rules. Under the city’s charter, complaints are supposed to be made to the clerk of council and investigated by the law director, who is appointed by the mayor.”

“’This is about the public trust, transparency, and confidence in our system and I assure you that all appropriate measures to enforce the law will be taken,’ he said.”