PAC fund's ties to lawmaker (Jerry Lewis) at issue

[question everything]

PAC fund's ties to lawmaker at issue

Lewis' daughter runs it; critics say it's unethical
By Jerry Kammer and Marcus Stern
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

June 8, 2006

WASHINGTON – A small group of lobbyists and defense contractors doing business with the House Appropriations Committee has endowed a political fund run by the stepdaughter of the committee's chairman, Rep. Jerry Lewis.

About a third of the $113,700 that Julia Willis-Leon has raised through her Small Biz Tech PAC has gone to pay her salary and expenses. Political action committees, or PACs, are a legal way for people, businesses and other organizations to give money to political candidates. Willis-Leon's 16-month-old PAC has given $15,600 to candidates. Meanwhile, it has paid her more than double that amount – $37,420. Campaign finance records show Willis-Leon received $2,000 to $5,225 per month in fundraising fees and commissions. Willis-Leon, 44, denied wrongdoing.

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Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C., said the arrangement might be legal, but it's “completely outrageous and it's completely unethical. Members are not supposed to be using their positions to enrich their family.”

Federal investigators have been issuing subpoenas as part of an investigation into whether Lewis benefited improperly from the flow of federal money he has directed to contractors and a host of schools and agencies concentrated in his district. Lewis, a Redlands Republican, has denied any wrongdoing.

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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20060608-9999-1n8lewis.html

[rodeodance]

1. DeLays wife has a similar arrangement.