Kyrsten Sinema’s recent travel spending is illegal, watchdog alleges
A government watchdog group has filed a complaint against U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, alleging that her recent pricey travel expenditures broke campaign-finance laws.
The nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is accusing Sinema, I-Ariz., of breaking election rules that prohibit candidates from using campaign funds for strictly personal purposes.
“The rule of thumb is that any dollar your campaign spends has to be for the campaign — it can’t just be for your own personal benefit,” CREW president Noah Bookbinder said in a written statement. “It’s hard to see how any of this spending was for the benefit of the campaign.”
Sinema announced in March that she would not seek reelection, capping off a controversial single Senate term that alienated many on and off Capitol Hill. Since then, she billed her campaign upward of $200,000 on travel expenses during visits to France, Japan, the U.K., and other international destinations, The Arizona Republic reported in October.
Federal election rules allow candidates’ campaigns to foot the bill for travel and security expenses that are connected to their official or campaign duties. But they prohibit candidates from using campaign money for expenses that they would make “irrespective” of their election or government service.
Sinema’s campaign-finance report didn’t make clear what activities were official Senate business and which were underwritten by her campaign. CREW was unable to find an official purpose for the spending “through an extensive search of the public record,” according to the complaint.
“The law applies to you whether it’s your first week in office or your last,” Bookbinder said. “Spending thousands of dollars of campaign contributions on yourself is even more troubling when it comes after you’ve announced you’re no longer a candidate.”
The complaint argues Sinema’s spending may break criminal law and should be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for investigation.
The issue now comes before the notoriously gridlocked Federal Election Commission, an agency that is often slow or indecisive when acting on campaign-finance complaints.
What’s more, even if campaign expenditures “seem a little off,” it could be difficult to parse whether a candidate’s spending meets the narrow criteria for misuse, a lawyer told The Republic in October.
A spokesperson for Sinema’s office did not return a request for comment.
Sinema’s travel bills mounted this year
In total, Sinema billed about $216,000 for travel between July and September, her campaign-finance report showed. Her campaign also paid $152,000 for her security-related expenses.
Among other expenses, she attended the Olympics in Paris in August, took an official trip to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and appeared to visit a Tokyo-based company that focuses on the sustainable development of outer space.
Sinema’s campaign spent $4,500 for lodging, a car service, and meetings with Thai and Indian meals in London. She also spent $800 on train tickets from a German-based company, though it wasn’t clear whether she traveled to Germany as well.
Not the first time Sinema’s spending scrutinized
It’s not the first time that Sinema’s penchant for travel has become the subject of legal complaints.
Last year, as the race for her Senate seat was taking shape, a Democrat-aligned group seeking to oust Sinema filed a similar complaint, taking aim at Sinema’s lavish spending on high-end hotels, restaurants and travel beginning in 2019 and continuing through 2022. Sinema’s spokesperson at the time dismissed the accusations as “desperate political attacks.”
Last year’s complaint assailed Sinema for campaign spending that substantially overlapped with her personal interests, such as when she attended the Boston Marathon. Lawyers for Sinema, a fitness enthusiast, defended the expenses, saying that the marathon was “a prime location and time for effective fundraising.”
CREW is pointing to those arguments to call her more recent expenses into question. Sinema spent around $8,000 on travel expenses in the Boston area in the days surrounding the marathon this spring, but has reported raising just one dollar since March, according to CREW’s complaint.
Sinema’s lavish spending has become part of a complicated legacy that the senator will leave behind when she exits office in early January. As she evolved from a political progressive to a business friendly Independent, her critics portrayed her as someone guided by personal financial gain who does the bidding of billionaires.
Sinema’s term ends on Jan. 3. Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., will succeed her, becoming Arizona’s first Latino senator.
She helped negotiate several of President Joe Biden’s major legislative accomplishments but stood in the way of other Democratic priorities while in Congress.
In a farewell address in December, Sinema praised the “guardrails” of democracy, including the Constitution, the oath of office and the rules and norms of the Senate.
“Many now blame these guardrails for blocking critical progress, instead of recognizing that it is us, our actions, our words, our incivility and, ultimately, our unwillingness to compromise that prevent reasonable solutions from advancing,” Sinema said.
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