Maxine Waters in Hot Water over Allegedly Corrupt Campaign Spending

Maxine Waters may have violated federal campaign finance laws, according to a complaint filed against her campaign. 

She may have made illegal payments to her own daughter from campaign funds. Waters daughter has been paid over a million dollars over the years. 

Fox News reports:

The Citizens for Waters report to the Federal Election Commission from Dec. 11 lists $183,022 in debt to her daughter Karen Waters, who is in charge of distributing “slate mailers.”

The mailers have faced scrutiny since 2010 because the campaign, beginning in 2004, has paid Waters’ daughter or her public relations firm Progressive Connections to produce, print and mail the sample ballots. Watchdog groups have raised questions about the propriety of campaign funds financially supporting a family member, as well as Waters raising contributions in excess of federal limits through an unusual process. Since 2004, the campaign has paid the younger Waters almost $1 million, based on previous news reports.
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In its FEC complaint, the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative government watchdog, contends the $25,000 payment to the Waters campaign violated election law. That’s because FEC guidelines say only another candidate—or candidate’s committee—may pay for being listed as the endorsed candidate on a slate mailer. (So, if the Villaraigosa gubernatorial campaign had made the payment, it wouldn’t have been a violation, according to the legal center.)

Even if the Waters campaign pays $13,000 or the full $25,000 back to the charter school group, it won’t undo an illegality, according to the watchdog group, which is now asking the FEC for a full audit of payments to Citizens for Waters derived from Waters’ slate mailers.