Duncan Hunter, the California congressman perhaps best known nationally for taking a super cool drag off of his nicotine vaporizer during a hearing, has attracted the attention of the Federal Election Commission for a uncool reason: spending $1,302 in campaign funds on video games.
Advertisement
Hunter claims his campaign’s credit card was actually pilfered by his teenage son to buy one game, and the rest of the charges piled on after that, unauthorized expenses one after another.
On Oct. 13, Hunter’s then-12 year old son, Duncan III, used his father’s campaign credit card to make $19.83, $5 and $24.90 charges to Steam then about 15 more days later. Kasper, Hunter’s spokesman, said the charge was a donation that was incorrectly labeled as a personal payment.
Mr. Hunter has until May 9 to respond to the FEC, and failure to do as much could prompt investigators to conduct an audit, the letter stated.
His campaign says that charge was immediately repaid with Hunter’s own money, but recurring charges from the site continued even after his family attempted to cancel the account. The House Ethics Committee website reads, “Campaign funds are to be used for bona fide campaign or political purposes only”.
“The problem with this rationale is that it conveys an image that America’s youth are incapable of discerning right from wrong, which simply is not true”, he wrote.
Advertisement
Hundreds of dollars in video game purchases tends to raise eyebrows when the charges appear on a congressman’s campaign expense report. “Campaign funds are not to be used to enhance a member’s lifestyle, or to pay a member’s personal obligations…Members have no discretion whatsoever to convert campaign funds to personal use”.
