This may be breaking too late to do Stan Matsunaka any good unless it gets picked up by the national news tonight, but it's worth my first dKOS diary anyway.
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R, CO-4), notorious for her anti-gay stance on marriage and for pandering to the religious right and grabbing headlines by squandering her entire tenure in the House by sponsoring the Federal Marriage Amendment, has been playing fast and loose with election/campaign laws. She has out-fundraised and outspent her opponent, the moderate Democrat Stan Matsunaka, but for all that apparent advantage, being the incumbent has given her a sense of entitlement, seeing as how she seems to think she's doing God's work and all.
More below the fold...
For the past few months, her re-election campain office has been co-located with her local congressional office space, and she has been soliciting contributions from that site. As described in a letter from Matsunaka to her office, the front door to her campaign office is also the back door to her Congressional office. As
Stan's letter points out, this is illegal, especially the part about accepting campaign contributions at a Congressional office. Musgrave told a reporter that the office "shares a door" and that the space is leased separately. Read
an article by William R. Holland in the Fort Morgan Times to find out what's happening in practice.
In another blatant abuse, Musgrave recently sent out a franked mailing that described how she worked to get agricultural disaster assistance funds. Although the oetter wasn't dated, the article enclosed was -- Oct. 10. As pointed out on Stan's Web site, it's illegal for representatives to spend offical funds to send "official" junk mail with 90 days of an election in which they're a candidate.
This isn't the first time she's skated on the edge of illegality. In June 2004, she franked a mailing to her constituents called "Official Report on the Status of Economic Stimulus and Tax Relief Legislation," but was thinly disguised campaign literature. The piece met the letter of the law, but clearly the only spirit she acknowledges is in the Christian trinity. She has also abused the franking privilege ever since she's been in office, an expense that's hard to justify considering the record deficit she helped grow.
I'm embarrassed when I have to say that Musgrave represents my district in Congress; I'd rather have "My Pet Goat."
P.S. I emailed a slightly shorter version of the above to the fine folks at Salon.com, and to Keith Olberman, but hold out no great hope of beating election day deadlines.
P.S.2 For a previous but un-recommendable diary on this topic, see "Running Campaign Out Of Congressional Office" by Aylene on 10/28 here.
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----That crazy neighbor -- you know, the one with all those cats.
Update [2004-11-1 16:53:52 by cvannatta]: Changed title, corrected district number