Feds to rule on Cunningham request in 60 days

11 Aug 2005 // A spokesman for the Federal Elections Commission said Wednesday that the agency will respond within 60 days to a request from U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to use campaign funds to pay for mounting legal defense fees.

Commission spokesman Bob Biersack said that the six-member panel will rule on the matter after its attorney issues an opinion. The commission has previously allowed lawmakers to use campaign funds to pay defense costs that arise from actions taken as part of their official duties, he said.

The 63-year-old Cunningham is the target of a federal grand jury probe into his 2003 real estate deal with Mitchell J. Wade, owner of the defense contracting firm MZM Inc. Wade paid Cunningham $700,000 more for the congressman's Del Mar Heights home than what he turned around and sold it for 11 months later.

As a result of that probe and allegations of whether he improperly influenced the awarding of Pentagon contracts to MZM, Cunningham is ending a congressional career that began in 1990 and won't seek re-election.

Not everyone who donated to what they thought would be Cunningham's 2006 re-election campaign is pleased with the notion of now seeing that money used to cover legal bills.

Escondido real estate agent Paul Van Elderen, who contributed $500 to Cunningham in May, said Wednesday that he wants his money go to other GOP candidates.

"I don't know if he's guilty of anything or not guilty," Van Elderen said. "But I think it's only fair that the money go to the Republican party."

Not surprisingly, Cunningham's longtime campaign treasurer supports using that money to pay the legal bills arising out of a federal grand jury probe of the 50th District Republican congressman.

"He deserves a fair defense and if the law allows it, I think it is a good thing," treasurer Kenneth Batson said Wednesday. "I am not convinced the man is guilty of anything. The only thing I know is what I have read in the newspaper, and that is not a trial."

Individuals such as Van Elderen and political action committees that don't want their money spent on attorney fees can ask that it be given to the National Republican Congressional Campaign.

Donors were advised of that option in letters mailed out last week, Batson said Wednesday, adding he has yet to receive any responses.

In June, Friends of Duke Cunningham, the lawmaker's campaign committee, reported to the election commission that it had $672,114 in available cash.

Harmony Allen, Cunningham's congressional office chief of staff, said the cost of his legal defense could soar as high as $1.5 million. That's a steep tab for a lawmaker who earns an annual congressional salary of $162,100.

The possibility that Cunningham could use campaign funds to wage his legal battle has outraged the group Citizens for Ethics in Washington, which has asked the House of Representatives Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to initiate its own investigation of Cunningham.

"It seems like a problem that money Cunningham got from MZM can now be used to defend his conduct with MZM," Sloan said in reference to contributions to Cunningham from the company.

Sloan also said the commission "bends the rules" to allow lawmakers to tap campaign funds to pay legal bills.

"This is an example of that," Sloan said. "When people give money to candidates, it's because they like their policies and want to see something done in Congress, not because they want to see it used for defraying legal bills."

The nonpartisan group Sloan heads will probably write a letter to the election commission opposing use of the campaign funds to pay attorneys, she added.

Another source of money for the attorneys could be the $2.5 million Rancho Santa Fe estate-style home Cunningham bought in 2004, but said last month that he will sell.

Another is his company, Top Gun Enterprises Inc., which until recently sold a book he authored about his career as an ace U.S. Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam War.

Top Gun Enterprises also was selling a Buck knife emblazoned with the congressional seal. The Web site that conducted the company's sales suspended operation after it was reported that Cunningham did not appear to have permission to use that seal, which Congress forbids placing on commercial products.

In his latest financial disclosure statement required of all federal lawmakers, Cunningham placed the value of his company at between $500,000 and $1 million.