FL-20, MI-13, MI-02: Thursday was a very busy day for the House Ethics Committee, which announced action on probes involving four different members. The most serious concerns Florida GOP Rep. Ross Spano, which we discuss in our FL-15 item above. The other three involve two Democrats, Florida’s Alcee Hastings and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, and one Republican, Michigan’s Bill Huizenga.
The Ethics Committee said it’s investigating whether Hastings violated House rules by having a relationship with a staffer and whether if he had “received any improper gifts” from this aide. The congressman has been in a relationship for decades with an aide named Patricia Williams, whom he’s employed since 2000. The two also purchased a home together in 2017.
Since 2018, House rules have prohibited members from “engag[ing] in a sexual relationship with any employee of the House who works under the supervision” of the member in question. Hastings said earlier this year of his relationship with Williams, “However it looks, it’s been looking like that for 25 years.” The congressman responded to the investigation with a short statement saying he would cooperate with the probe.
Of Tlaib, the committee said that there was “substantial reason to believe” she had improperly used campaign funds by paying herself after her election last year had concluded. Federal law allows candidates to use campaign money to pay themselves a salary, but they have to stop after they win or lose. However, the Ethics Committee says that Tlaib’s campaign paid her a total of $17,500 in 2018 after Election Day.
Tlaib's attorneys responded by saying that these payments were permitted because they were for work she did before Election Day that she was not paid for at the time. Tlaib represents a safely blue seat in the Detroit area, though there was already speculation that she could face a primary challenge before this news broke.
Finally, there’s Huizenga, a Republican who was first elected to his seat in western Michigan in 2010. The Ethics Committee said it examined several trips paid for by Huizenga’s congressional committee, including a trip to Disney World. The report said, “While these trips were generally described as campaign fund-raisers, the high cost and the attendance of staff’s families on these trips raised concerns that campaign funds were being converted for personal use to pay for vacations for Rep. Huizenga, his staff and their families.”
Huizenga’s office responded by saying, “This matter has already been resolved and dismissed by the Federal Election Commission.” Huizenga was by no means exonerated by the FEC, though. In June, commission deadlocked 2-2 as to whether there was reason to believe the congressman had violated federal campaign finance law, and that tie meant that it closed down its inquiry. Huizenga’s seat isn’t as safe for his party as Hastings and Tlaib's are for Democrats, but it’s still very red at 56-38 Trump.