As parting gift, Duke cut check to NRCC

28 Mar 2006 // Before former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) headed to prison, he prepared a small parting gift intended to help his colleagues in the upcoming election: a $2,000 check from his expiring campaign committee to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

That relatively small gesture, made Dec. 13 according to Cunningham’s campaign records, followed on the heels of an Oct. 24 donation of $11,684 to the NRCC. It also came about two weeks after he admitted to taking $2.4 million in bribes to direct government business to certain defense contractors.

NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said yesterday that the party never received the $2,000 check and that it has “no plans” to return the nearly $12,000 it accepted before Cunningham’s Nov. 28 guilty plea.

“I mailed it to them,” said Cunningham’s campaign treasurer, Kenneth Batson. “If it hasn’t cleared, I’ll stop payment and send it again.”

Batson said he hopes to close Cunningham’s account this quarter, which ends Friday.

Whether or not the last injection of money made it to the NRCC, the donation shows that a lawmaker can continue to influence elections even after a federal bribery conviction. And it’s perfectly legal.

Cunningham’s account was subjected to no special limitations after his conviction, raising the prospect that another lawmaker could funnel an entire war chest of millions of dollars to colleagues or a party committee on his or her way to the penitentiary.

“They can donate it to charity or party committees,” said Ian Stirton, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

“Obviously some people would have concerns if questionable money is being reintroduced into the campaign-finance system by people who have been found to do improper things,” said Daniel Lathrop, a database editor at the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.

But Lathrop noted that others would prefer that jail-bound lawmakers send money to the party rather than sit on large piles of cash.

Four days after he was indicted in September 2004, former Rep. Frank Ballance (D-N.C.) transferred $25,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He did not give the DCCC money after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit mail fraud and launder money in November 2004.

Since then, his campaign committee has given contributions ranging from $500 to $2,000 to Greater Little Zion United Holy Church, John Miles Youth Ministry, Kiddie World Inc. and the Warren Family Institute, according to FEC records.

Most of Cunningham’s remaining campaign cash was used to pay lawyers at O’Melveny & Myers $570,000 in the last quarter of 2005. In an advisory opinion, the FEC ruled that Cunningham could use campaign money to pay his lawyers because the charges against him stemmed from official duties.

Once they are no longer candidates for office, Lathrop said, “there’s very little lawmakers can’t do with that money.”

Cunningham had announced in July 2005 that he would not seek reelection.

Earlier this month, he was sentenced to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay $3.7 million in back taxes and restitution, plus the proceeds from an auction of ill-gotten goods.

Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor, pleaded guilty in February to giving the congressman more than $1 million in bribes. Wade and other employees of his company, MZM, were major contributors to Cunningham’s campaign committee.

Forti expressed no concern about the origin of the money that ended up in the NRCC coffers. The majority of Cunningham’s contributors “wanted to support Duke Cunningham, and Duke wanted to support us,” he said.

Lathrop says that reporting discrepancies between one committee and another are fairly common in the campaign-finance system and that it is not terribly hard to imagine a $2,000 check getting lost at the NRCC, which had $21 million on hand at last count.

Forti said the NRCC does not have any standard practice for dealing with donations from convicted former lawmakers.

“All contributions will be evaluated individually,” he said. “There’s no blanket policy.”

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, did not answer a request for comment on the DCCC’s policy regarding such donations before press time.