Ron Paul Hires Family Members with Campaign Contributions

[InTheLight]

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its first ever comprehensive report of how member of the U.S. House use their positions to benefit themselves and their families. In the 2008-2010 election cycle Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign (R-TX) paid six relatives salaries or fees, the most of any member. The report details payments made to Paul’s family members as well as reimbursements made to relatives. Paul is listed in the report’s key findings as the number four congressman who paid “the most money in salaries and fees to family members” ($304,599) and number two on the list of representatives “reimbursing family members the most money” ($47,421).

Some of their findings:

Lori Pyeatt (daughter):
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Pyeatt $56,666 in salary.
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Pyeatt $4,878 for gas, food and travel expenses.
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s leadership PAC paid Ms. Pyeatt $2,542 in salary.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Pyeatt $42,590 in salary.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Pyeatt $4,478 for telephone, mileage and framing expenses.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s leadership PAC paid Ms. Pyeatt $24,334 in salary.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s leadership PAC reimbursed Ms. Pyeatt $917 for travel expenses.

Wayne A. Paul (brother):
• Mr. Paul is the owner of Paul, Phipps & Co. an accounting firm.20 During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid the firm $48,065 for accounting services and $608 in payroll taxes and postage expenses.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s leadership PAC paid Paul, Phipps & Co. $677 for accounting services.

Nora LeBlanc (daughter’s mother-in-law):
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Leblanc $50,104 in salary.
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Leblanc $1,868 for travel expenses.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. LeBlanc $12,775 in salary.

Valori Benton (granddaughter):
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Benton $49,096 in salary.
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Benton $6,960 for travel, mileage and phone expenses.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Benton $30,093 in salary.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Benton $1,558 for office supplies and unspecified expenses.

Jesse Benton (grandson-in-law):
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Mr. Benton $27,810 in salary and political consulting fees.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Mr. Benton $21,942 for travel and mileage expenses.

page 307 at link:
http://www.citizensforethics.org/page/-/PDFs/Reports/Family_Affair_House_2012_CREW.pdf?nocdn=1

More recently, in the Presidential cycle we are in right now, according to opensecrets.org, Jesse Benton, Paul's grandson-in-law, is the 12th highest paid recipient of campaign expenditures having received $248,822 thus far. Mr. Benton is the chairman of Paul's Presidential campaign.

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/expend.php?cycle=2012&cid=n00005906&type=I

 

[poncho]

And where does Paul get his campaign money from?

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=n00005906

He gets it from me and and thousands of others like me and I say if he wants to hire a family member on my dime he can. :smilewinkgrin:

 

[poncho]

Where do the other candidates get their campaign money from?

 

[Havensdad]

What is the big deal? Those are EXTREMELY reasonable salaries...VERY low for Washington. If I was a Congressman, and I had a job my son could do, I would darn well give him a job! And so would anyone else!

 

[InTheLight]

What is the big deal? Those are EXTREMELY reasonable salaries...VERY low for Washington. If I was a Congressman, and I had a job my son could do, I would darn well give him a job! And so would anyone else!

It doesn't ring true for me. His son Rand, didn't do anything. His son Robert Paul: During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Mr. Paul $375 for unspecified expenses.

I presume these people are living and working in Texas, not Washington, D.C. They would have worked on his House and Presidential campaign in 2008 and on his House re-election campaign in 2010. Why would they be based in DC?

Key phrase is "if I had a job my <insert name of relative> could do..." I wonder what Paul's daughter's mother-in-law was doing for the campaign? She got $50,000 in 2008.

He's got his grandson-in-law running his Presidential campaign. How's he doing? Has he won any states? IS he qualified?

Also, I wonder about his daughter getting paid by two separate entities, his campaign and his leadership PAC. She made $42,590 and $24,334 respectively in 2010. That's almost $67,000 working for a re-election campaign. Paul won his seat in 2010 by 76% to 24%.

 

[Havensdad]

It doesn't ring true for me. His son Rand, didn't do anything. His son Robert Paul: During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Mr. Paul $375 for unspecified expenses.

I presume these people are living and working in Texas, not Washington, D.C. They would have worked on his House and Presidential campaign in 2008 and on his House re-election campaign in 2010. Why would they be based in DC?

Key phrase is "if I had a job my <insert name of relative> could do..." I wonder what Paul's daughter's mother-in-law was doing for the campaign? She got $50,000 in 2008.

Let me get this straight. Basically you are saying, "I don't have any proof that Paul did anything wrong. But since we can't find any dirt on him anywhere else, I guess this will have to do."

REALLY? You have three HORRIBLY unethical and inconsistent candidates, who have admitted to multiple adulterous affairs, changing their views to win campaigns, and "going along with the crowd" whenever it suited them politically, and the best you can come up with on Paul is, "He hired his family members for jobs, paid them a fairly low salary, and so 'I think' there must be something going on"? Seriously?

He's got his grandson-in-law running his Presidential campaign. How's he doing? Has he won any states? IS he qualified?

He has done EXTREMELY well. The other candidates, political pundits, etc., have actually called Paul's a "flawless" campaign. When you have the entire establishment against you, and the media on the left AND the right (on the right cause they don't like Paul's war stance...on the left because they don't like Paul's stance on liberty, NOR the fact that he pulls so many young people away from Obama) attacking you constantly, or ignoring you, how well do you think a person can do? If Paul had gotten the same kind of support from Fox and the GOP establishment that Romney has gotten, he would be TROUNCING everyone else right now (not to mention a few big donors like Goldman-Sachs).

Also, I wonder about his daughter getting paid by two separate entities, his campaign and his leadership PAC. She made $42,590 and $24,334 respectively in 2010. That's almost $67,000 working for a re-election campaign. Paul won his seat in 2010 by 76% to 24%.

67,000 dollars is modest for such a job.

 

[InTheLight]

Let me get this straight. Basically you are saying, "I don't have any proof that Paul did anything wrong. But since we can't find any dirt on him anywhere else, I guess this will have to do."

What I am saying is that Ron Paul hires family members. He leads the nation in this. No other candidate hired as many family members. That makes me wonder--Are they qualified? What is their job in non-election years? Do they have a job in non-election years?

REALLY? You have three HORRIBLY unethical and inconsistent candidates, who have admitted to multiple adulterous affairs, changing their views to win campaigns, and "going along with the crowd" whenever it suited them politically, and the best you can come up with on Paul is, "He hired his family members for jobs, paid them a fairly low salary, and so 'I think' there must be something going on"? Seriously?

We don't know if the salary is low or not. It depends on the job description and whatever the market rate is for that job. I didn't make a judgment as to whether the pay was high or low.

He has done EXTREMELY well. The other candidates, political pundits, etc., have actually called Paul's a "flawless" campaign. When you have the entire establishment against you, and the media on the left AND the right (on the right cause they don't like Paul's war stance...on the left because they don't like Paul's stance on liberty, NOR the fact that he pulls so many young people away from Obama) attacking you constantly, or ignoring you, how well do you think a person can do? If Paul had gotten the same kind of support from Fox and the GOP establishment that Romney has gotten, he would be TROUNCING everyone else right now (not to mention a few big donors like Goldman-Sachs).

He's in last place among the candidates. You call this EXTREMELY well. Romney's lead is not due to FOX's support, it's due to his enormous spending on TV, radio, and print ads.

Among Republicans Ron Paul's campaign has raised the 2nd highest amount of money and has spent the 2nd highest amount. He's spent more than twice as much money as Santorum. Yet, he's in last place. He's spent all this money and his strategy is to target caucus states and try to win the battle with grassroots party members rather than the general public. This is essentially what he did last time around. Same strategy, same results. Just what has $34 million bought him?

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/index.php

In February his top three expenditures were postage/mail $921K, political strategy consulting $410K (how's that working, BTW?) and campaign merchandise $294K. Almost $1 million on postage and mailers? Seriously? That strategy is SO 1970.

67,000 dollars is modest for such a job.

The only way to know is to know the job description and compare it to what other House members pay their workers for the equivalent work.

 

[Aaron]

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its first ever comprehensive report of how member of the U.S. House use their positions to benefit themselves and their families. In the 2008-2010 election cycle Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign (R-TX) paid six relatives salaries or fees, the most of any member. The report details payments made to Paul’s family members as well as reimbursements made to relatives. Paul is listed in the report’s key findings as the number four congressman who paid “the most money in salaries and fees to family members” ($304,599) and number two on the list of representatives “reimbursing family members the most money” ($47,421).

Some of their findings:

Lori Pyeatt (daughter):
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Pyeatt $56,666 in salary.
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Pyeatt $4,878 for gas, food and travel expenses.
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s leadership PAC paid Ms. Pyeatt $2,542 in salary.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Pyeatt $42,590 in salary.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Pyeatt $4,478 for telephone, mileage and framing expenses.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s leadership PAC paid Ms. Pyeatt $24,334 in salary.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s leadership PAC reimbursed Ms. Pyeatt $917 for travel expenses.

Wayne A. Paul (brother):
• Mr. Paul is the owner of Paul, Phipps & Co. an accounting firm.20 During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid the firm $48,065 for accounting services and $608 in payroll taxes and postage expenses.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s leadership PAC paid Paul, Phipps & Co. $677 for accounting services.

Nora LeBlanc (daughter’s mother-in-law):
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Leblanc $50,104 in salary.
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Leblanc $1,868 for travel expenses.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. LeBlanc $12,775 in salary.

Valori Benton (granddaughter):
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Benton $49,096 in salary.
• During the 2008 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Benton $6,960 for travel, mileage and phone expenses.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Ms. Benton $30,093 in salary.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Ms. Benton $1,558 for office supplies and unspecified expenses.

Jesse Benton (grandson-in-law):
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee paid Mr. Benton $27,810 in salary and political consulting fees.
• During the 2010 election cycle, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reimbursed Mr. Benton $21,942 for travel and mileage expenses.

page 307 at link:
http://www.citizensforethics.org/page/-/PDFs/Reports/Family_Affair_House_2012_CREW.pdf?nocdn=1

More recently, in the Presidential cycle we are in right now, according to opensecrets.org, Jesse Benton, Paul's grandson-in-law, is the 12th highest paid recipient of campaign expenditures having received $248,822 thus far. Mr. Benton is the chairman of Paul's Presidential campaign.

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/expend.php?cycle=2012&cid=n00005906&type=I

:sleep::sleep::sleep:

 

[InTheLight]

If anybody wants to know what the candidates are spending on their campaigns, here's a link:

http://www.fec.gov/disclosurep/PDownload.do

You can download the zipped excel spreadsheet file and then using Data Sort you can find most anything fairly quickly.

Some tidbits:

Somebody named John F. Tate is being paid over $12,000 a month salary. http://www.campaignforliberty.com/profile.php?member=John_Tate

Jesse Benton is getting paid over $10,000 a month in salary. He made a total of $27,000 on Paul's campaign in 2010.

Because his campaign takes in a lot of contributions from individuals the campaign pays a LOT of credit card transaction fees. For example, it was $20,736 in December to American Express. If the average fee is 3% that means they processed $690,000 in credit card transactions in December.

 

[just-want-peace]

Perhaps I missed something, but did RP do something unethical or illegal in hiring family members to work in his campaign?

RP will have to pay someone to do "whatever" re: the nuts & bolts of the campaign, and if they are doing said nut & bolts, why not?

I'm not a RP fan/supporter, but I find this "criticism" a bit lacking in seriousness; almost as if this is all the mud you can find to throw at him.

If I'm wrong, I'm open to correction.

 

[InTheLight]

Perhaps I missed something, but did RP do something unethical or illegal in hiring family members to work in his campaign?

RP will have to pay someone to do "whatever" re: the nuts & bolts of the campaign, and if they are doing said nut & bolts, why not?

Not illegal. The ethics of it depend on whether or not the family members are qualified to perform the tasks assigned to them. I wonder about having the grandson-in-law be the campaign chair of the Presidential campaign. In the last election cycle he was paid $27,000 for the entire campaign duration. Now he's the campaign chair and is getting over $10,000 a month. The campaign has spent the 2nd highest amount of money for Republicans. Paul is in last place, hasn't won a single state. Is he qualified to be campaign chair?

 

[Havensdad]

What I am saying is that Ron Paul hires family members. He leads the nation in this. No other candidate hired as many family members. That makes me wonder--Are they qualified? What is their job in non-election years? Do they have a job in non-election years?

I "wonder" if Romney or Rick Santorum are actually Iranian spies....or "in the closet." I "wonder" if Newt Gingrich is actually an alien from another planet, which is why he wants to build a moon colony...

We can "wonder" all kinds of silly unfounded things.

We don't know if the salary is low or not. It depends on the job description and whatever the market rate is for that job. I didn't make a judgment as to whether the pay was high or low.

Unless they are working as a janitor, its low. This is less than most consultant fees in Washington. It is VERY, VERY low.

He's in last place among the candidates. You call this EXTREMELY well. Romney's lead is not due to FOX's support, it's due to his enormous spending on TV, radio, and print ads.

Wrong. Its due to the media painting him like the eventual nominee. Every single channel you turn to, for the last 4 months, has repeated "Romney is going to be the eventual nominee" over and over. This makes a FAR greater impact, coming from a so-called "neutral" news reporter, than any little 30 second T.V. commercial can make. Romney would NEVER have done as well as he has, without the litany of "opinions" coming from the News networks.

Among Republicans Ron Paul's campaign has raised the 2nd highest amount of money and has spent the 2nd highest amount.

And yet he has the lowest per donation amount of any of the candidates. His campaign contributions come from a LARGER amount of ordinary folks, than any of the other 3 candidates.

He's spent more than twice as much money as Santorum. Yet, he's in last place. He's spent all this money and his strategy is to target caucus states and try to win the battle with grassroots party members rather than the general public. This is essentially what he did last time around. Same strategy, same results. Just what has $34 million bought him?

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/index.php

In February his top three expenditures were postage/mail $921K, political strategy consulting $410K (how's that working, BTW?) and campaign merchandise $294K. Almost $1 million on postage and mailers? Seriously? That strategy is SO 1970.

You cannot counter 24/7 litanies from ALL of the major media, saying "His foreign policy is crazy" (even though when it is properly articulated, polls have shown about half of all Republicans agree with him, and 2/3 of the general population), "he can't win," "you are throwing your vote away," etc. You cannot GET enough donations to counter that kind of negative smear campaign.

Paul's only shot (and he still has a shot, BTW), is to focus on delegates, and count on Romney not clinching the nomination before the convention. His strategy is the only option he has. There is no other way to fight the establishment.

The only way to know is to know the job description and compare it to what other House members pay their workers for the equivalent work.

Or to simply look at the very lowest paid people in the other campaigns, and realize that they are making more...

 

[Havensdad]

Jesse Benton is getting paid over $10,000 a month in salary.

Which is about 3000 dollars per month less than Romney's Campaign adviser Matt Rhoades...

 

[InTheLight]

Which is about 3000 dollars per month less than Romney's Campaign adviser Matt Rhoades...

I would argue that Mr. Rhoades is not getting paid enough.

OK, let's look at the issue of campaign chairs. Let's say you are a consistent donor to the Paul campaign. You find out that he's going to hire his grandson to be the campaign chief. What's his experience? Well, he was a go-fer in the 2010 campaign.

I wonder how that sits with donors to know that the guy running Paul's campaign is a rookie? And in control of how over $30 million worth of campaign funds gets spent.

 

[Havensdad]

I would argue that Mr. Rhoades is not getting paid enough.

OK, let's look at the issue of campaign chairs. Let's say you are a consistent donor to the Paul campaign. You find out that he's going to hire his grandson to be the campaign chief. What's his experience? Well, he was a go-fer in the 2010 campaign.

I wonder how that sits with donors to know that the guy running Paul's campaign is a rookie? And in control of how over $30 million worth of campaign funds gets spent.

As a Ron Paul donor, I am great with it. I have heard Jesse Benton speak and debate. The guy is a genius.

 

[poncho]

Imho Ron Paul is better suited to act as president and turning this country away from the cliff than all the establishment favorites democrats and republicans alike have been leading it towads for decades.

If he is as I believe smart and honest enough to fix the mess the past and present media favorites have put us in then I reckon he's smart and honest enough to put good people in key positons in his campaign as well as his administration.

Havensdad has made it pretty clear that Ron Paul's campaign has been under attack from all angles by the establishment which by the way if you haven't noticed is filled to overflowing with greedy power hungry sociopaths that'll do or say anything to stay in power and/or increase their net worth. . . at your expense.

Imagine trying to fight off Godzilla with fly a swater.

In the face of all that he remains and is still heard. Is his grandson in law qualified? Well, duh!

Last place? Who says? The greedy power hungry sociopaths and their massed media attack dogs?

Who says? Diebold, Clearchannel, ES&S and their rigged electronic voting system?

Maybe it's time to start listening to Ron paul instead of all the sociopaths who stand to lose their power and possibly their shirts should Ron Paul actually win.