Pennsylvania Democrats first to return Waters contributions

Wikimedia CommonsU.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles

At least two Pennsylvania politicians have already returned campaign contributions made by a committee tied to California Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, who will face an ethics trial this fall over questions that she used her power to help a bank with ties to her husband.

The politicians, Reps. Kathy Dahlkemper and Patrick Murphy, both Democrats, have faced pressure from Republicans in Pennsylvania to return contributions from both Waters and embattled New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, who also faces ethics charges in the House.

Dahlkemper received $2,000 from Waters and Murphy received $1,000. The National Republican Congressional Committee reportedly plans to attack candidates who received money from Waters and Rangel using robo-calls.

Though it has been clear for several weeks that Waters would face ethics charges, a detailed report outlining those charges was released Monday.

Among other things, the report charges that Waters helped steer $12 million in federal bailout funds to a bank where her husband recently sat on the board. The assistance was facilitated in part by Waters' chief of staff, Mikael Moore, who is also her grandson.

The Waters committee that made contributions to the Pennsylvania lawmakers, called People Helping People, has given money to dozens of other politicians over the years, including California Reps. Joe Baca, Lois Capps and Dennis Cardoza.

 

Comments

Comments are closed for this story.
Jerry L's picture
People are reacting as if guilt of wrongdoing is established when the situation is nothing of the kind. Was Waters steering money toward a particular bank, or to African-American owned banks in general toward which, as a member of the Black Caucus, she has a representative role. In other words, was her husband's connection to one of these institutions simply an incidental - and now being used as part of a scheme to discredit the Democrats. We can have no doubt that the "too big to fail" institutions had more than enough representation in their negotiating their bailouts. Needless to say, none of these institutions is an African-American owned business. I am not saying yea or nay to the ethics question but in a country where there is meant to be a presumption of innocence, there is no innocence in using ethics investigations to weaken political opponents. I have serious concerns that, starting with Van Jones, the willingness of the current administration in Washington to withdraw support from African-Americans in public life who come under attack, often with no real justification, has resulted in it being "open season" on the right for slandering people of color in public life. Funny how this didn't happen in terms of Halliburton connections in the last administration when that company was cheating on no-bid contracts it received from the government.
comemyblog's picture
Shanghai white-collar luxury category Louis Vuitton Bags has the largest white-collar crowd in Guangdong's consumption of luxury goods in all the least.Liu Cheng's white-collar workers up to the "how you look back crowded bus LV," Cheap Louis Vuitton Bags said "whatever."

via Twitter

© 2013 California Watch   /  development:  Happy Snowman Tech   /  design: