NE-03: Adrian Smith Pays Father More Than $140K

Smith Watch has the story:

This then takes me to the most interesting link on the site. The “Expenditures” list. This is what his campaign basically wrote checks on. A lot is easily found to be campaign related. Then there were the things listed that raise eyebrows.
[…]
$141,666 to Neal Smith, Adrian’s father. A look at the FEC forms say it’s for payroll processing.

The New Nebraska Network provides some more details:

It’s hard to imagine what legitimate purpose there could possibly have been for the October 30, 2006 disbursement of $12,434 to Neal Smith for this mysterious “Payroll Processing.” To a suspicious mind, that has to sound like either a deliberately vague catch-all for a lot of different payments or else a pretty clear cut case of the Smith family keeping some of the controversial Club for Growth’s money for themselves.

And AmericaBlog digs a little deeper:

Looking at the FEC Web site, and at the electronic filings, this is how the $141,000 breaks down as direct payments to Smith’s Dad:

In-Kind: Birthday Invitations: $219.35
In-Kind: Flight for two: $497.58
In-Kind: Office Space: $2525.00
Debt Repayment: $22,055.54
Payroll Processing: $116, 389.38

From the comments:

Hmm, eliminating all corporate payments, I condensed the list down to 38 individuals who received money from Smith, including his father. The Stunning result: Smith paid more than $116000 for the processing of 332 payments to 37 persons, totalling $235,000. That’s about 50 cent for processing each dollar. Hmm, strange that Smith’s dad offered his own son such a lousy deal, isn’t it?

Smith defeated Scott Kleeb in one of the most surprisingly close races in 2006. Kudos to Lisa at Smith Watch for finding this.

4 thoughts on “NE-03: Adrian Smith Pays Father More Than $140K”

  1. About two years ago, the Arizona Republic provided a good rundown of Republicans paying family members from campaign funds.  The article highlights the following significant payouts:

    Tom DeLay: $500,000 to wife and daughter
    J.D. Hayworth: $107,000 to wife
    Jeff Flake: $27,000 to wife and $20,000 to brother-in-law

    This will also likely become an issue in the Colorado Senate race in 2008.  Likely Democratic nominee Rep. Mark Udall co-sponsored a bill “to prohibit candidates or their immediate family members from drawing salaries from campaign committees for campaign-related work.”  This is key because (emphasis added by me):

    [GOP Senate candidate and former Rep. Scott] McInnis drew media scrutiny and complaints from Democrats in 2004 and 2005 over the tens of thousands of dollars his campaign has paid his wife, Lori, to work as campaign manager – including after he announced he would leave Congress to become a lobbyist. …

    Still, none of the other Colorado cases comes close to the more than $145,000 that Lori McInnis was paid from 2001 to 2005.

    When the family member of a candidate or elected official is on the payroll, it will raise questions, fair or not.  When the payments are unsubstantiated by clear documentation, or when the family members are paid well above market value for their job, it is a giant red flag that allows for at least the appearance of impropriety.

    At the very least, I do hope that Adrian Smith’s donors, and the donors for all of these other Republicans who may or may not be treating their campaign accounts and PACs as family slush funds, re-think future contributions in light of how the money is spent.  And if it appears that any of these candidates or elected officials are abusing their funds or using them potentially unlawfully, I hope appropriate investigative action is taken.  And if you need to jumpstart such an investigation, just ask Pajamas Pete Domenici to make a phone call for you!

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