Rick Renzi has done it again. Just a few days after the Federal Election Committee decided to take no further action against the Arizona Congressman for allegations of
ethics violations relating to his campaign fundraising in '02 and '04--which came directly from the FEC audit, by the way--Renzi is in the news for another potential violation, this time for using a Congressional staffer as a fundraiser at the same time.
According to Harper's magazine, a loophole in federal law and House ethics rules allow one of his administrative assistants, Patty Roe, to fundraise and staff Renzi at the same time. The rules prevent "senior staff" from having two careers at the same time, or any staff member to work on campaigns during work hours. But because "senior staff" is defined as someone who makes $109,808+ and Roe makes approximately $95,000, the rule technically does not apply to her.
With Renzi's record of disregard for election law, this really comes as no surprise. What is shocking to me, however, is how easily he gets away with it. The FEC already stopped investigating Renzi's previous financial activities when their own audit shows that he broke the law, and this will be ignored because of a technicality.
Clearly, the intent of the law is to avoid exactly this kind of conflict of interest from ever arising. Defining "senior staff" to be one who makes more than $109,808+ seems arbitrary and ridiculous--but I wonder if this loophole can ever be closed. Unless we do though, we're likely to see more stories like, where Congressional staffers' salaries are deliberately kept "artifically low" as the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) suggests was done here.
Cross-posted at MyDD and AZ Netroots.