Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R, MI-09) is using tax dollars to fund his campaign -- and no one seems to care.
In another example of how Joe Knollenberg wastes your tax dollars, he has hired a Washington, D.C. lobbyist, Trent Wisecup, as his Chief of Staff -- even though all he is doing is running Knollenberg's re-election campaign. Knollenberg has not only put this lobbyist on the public payroll, but he has been paying him an enormous salary -- $39,957 in just the first 3 months of the year!!!
The good folks at VoteNoOnJoe, a Congressional tracking blog, already documented how Knollenberg has wasted tax dollars on earmarks (like the one where he gave $8 million to his biggest campaign donor) and how he spends tax dollars to frank his campaign mailers.
Wait, it gets worse....
The glossy fliers he has been making and mailing at taxpayer expense are the work of this same lobbyist who is now Knollenberg's Chief of Staff/Campaign Manager.
Wisecup is a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, his lobbying firm has bragged about how successful Wisecup was in convincing Congressman like Knollenberg to vote AGAINST SENIORS by prohibiting them from saving money by getting their prescriptions from Canada.
It is bad enough that corrupt lobbyists have so much influence over Congress. Now they are using lobbyists to influence our choices in major elections. It doesn't get much sleazier than that.
This not only shows just how tied Knollenberg is with lobbyists, it brings Knollenberg's judgment into question.
How can you possibly trust anyone who spends nearly $40,000 of taxpayer money on a lobbyist.
And that $40,000 is just for the first 3 months of the year.
Here is the breakdown of the payments Knollenberg arranged for Wisecup.
2 months work for the Appropriations Committee: $19,978.50 (=$ 9,989.25/month)
3 months work for Knollenberg: $19,090.57 + $887.93 = $19,938.50 (=$9,969.25/month)
That means we, as taxpayers, are paying this lobbyist $ 19, 958.50/month!!!
That equates to $239,502/year!!!
If Joe Knollenberg wants to hire a lobbyist, he should be honest about it and pay the lobbyist from campaign funds, not out of our tax dollars.
For more information, please visit Vote No On Joeor email the blog at joe@knollenberg.org.
Is your Congressman using taxpayer money like this too?