Memo to current and would-be politicians: Vacationing in Aspen? Don’t screw the taxpayers.
Yet another high-ranking politico is in hot water after taking a chartered jet out of la-la land in the Rockies.
Tom Craddick, Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, found
himself the target of an ethics complaint after he spent approximately
$13,500 in campaign funds to charter a jet from Aspen to Houston to
attend the funeral of a Houston lawmaker. The amount of the expenditure
is not in question, but it has ruffled feathers in the Lone Star State,
where an ethics complaint against the embattled Speaker was filed.
“To me, it shows a total lack of scruples,” said Dave Palmer, a
California-based ethics crusader, who filed the complaint. “How do you
justify spending these outrageous amounts of money? And if you’re
really representing the people, then why aren’t you doing their work?”
This isn’t the first time a politician has been caught in a financial
Aspen scandal. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) canceled a ski junket to
Aspen in 2001 after critics accused him of wasting taxpayer dollars,
and U.S. Army Secretary Thomas White also drew ire in 2002 after he
used a military jet so that he and his wife could close the sale on
their three-story house in well-heeled Aspen.
While government watchdogs like Palmer contend that Craddick’s
expensive flight from Aspen to Houston was excessive, his
public-relations team stands firm that there was no wrongdoing.
Tom Craddick
Spin doctors for the embattled Republican point out that the flight
expense doesn’t appear to have broken any laws, and that the chartered
jet morphed into a necessity when the congressman was unable to book a
commercial flight from Aspen to attend Texas Rep. Glenda Dawson’s
funeral.
“Given the circumstances of their location and Rep. Dawson’s untimely
death, that was the only way the Speaker and Nadine (Craddick’s wife)
were able to get to the funeral,” read a statement Craddick’s press
liaisons e-mailed to the Aspen Daily News on Wednesday.
The Texas Ethics Commission has indicated it will consider Palmer’s
complaint and issue an opinion on whether Craddick violated any
campaign finance rules. But the rules appear to be thorny.
In the past, the Texas Ethics Commission has ruled that lawmakers are
permitted to spend political contributions on a spouse’s travel if the
travel is for official state business. But here’s where it gets dicey:
While the commission has ruled that using campaign funds to travel to
family funerals is not permissible, that opinion doesn’t seem to apply
to lawmaker funerals, according to experts in Texas.
Whatever the case, the high-cost travel has caught the attention of the
media and Craddick’s political adversaries, some of whom are his fellow
Republicans. Even though Craddick was re-elected with a 12-vote margin
to begin the 2007 legislative session, the Speaker’s own lieutenants in
the GOP have reportedly turned against him, citing his alleged
authoritarian ways and democratic skirting.
“The Ethics Commission rules don’t put a particular limit on how much
you can pay for a plane ticket,” explained Andrew Wheat, who monitors
the influence of money in politics for a group called Texans for Public
Justice.
“That said, this does appear to be off the charts.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
hoop@aspendailynews.com
