“It sounds like something that could potentially be a fairly serious violation of campaign finance law and the ethics rules,” said Bryson Morgan, a former investigative counsel at the Office of Congressional Ethics, who now practices political law at Caplin & Drysdale. “They need to pay fair-market value for any space that the campaign uses.”
The news follows other recent revelations from the Minnesota Reformer that portray a congressman frequently skirting the line on congressional ethics. Hagedorn is facing scrutiny for having paid more than $100,000 in taxpayer money to a printing company owned by a staff member; a different company, owned by the brother of his former chief of staff, took in another roughly $340,000 in public funds. Hagedorn also drew criticism for appearing on a local radio show hosted by a campaign vendor without disclosing their financial ties.
The historic Brett’s Building is among downtown Mankato’s premier office spaces — forming with the adjacent Mankato Place mall a sprawling industrial-chic maze of government facilities, restaurants, events halls and a movie theater, with an attached Hilton Garden Inn hugging a bend in the Minnesota River.
It’s also where Hagedorn set up shop for his regional congressional office, distinct from the campaign office, that has cost $2,200 of taxpayer money per month since the beginning of 2019, according to congressional spending records.
The money Hagedorn’s congressional office uses to pay for space on the third floor of the Brett’s Building comes from his taxpayer-funded budget, which he can use only for official expenses. Any use of that district office for campaign purposes or paying for a campaign office with taxpayer money would be illegal. Campaign finance regulations require a strict separation between such funds, so as not to give incumbents an unfair advantage.
“If he gets that basement space as part of the rent he's paying for his congressional office, then that is arguably illegally using congressional funds to pay for the campaign office,” said Larry Noble, a former top FEC lawyer who now teaches at American University.
But even if Hagedorn is currently paying for his campaign office using taxpayer funds, that wouldn’t explain the absence of payments that began before he was elected to Congress in 2018. He first reported using the space in 2013 for a failed congressional run against now-Gov. Tim Walz.
Campaign finance laws state a candidate must pay fair-market rate for all facilities. The office space could also be donated, but then the campaign would have had to disclose to the FEC that the owner of the building gave an “in-kind contribution,” a designation for a donation of goods, services, time or other non-cash items. And like normal cash donations, in-kind donations must be limited to $5,600 per election cycle, with half of that designated for a primary and the other half for a general election.
Hagedorn’s campaign has reported no in-kind contributions or payments for office space in any year since his campaign committee formed in 2013. . . .
Read the rest of the sordid tale at Politico.
The article is getting it share of attention on social media--and the Star Tribune's Patrick Condon included this nugget in the paper's Morning Hot Dish newsletter:
Rep. Jim Hagedorn's campaign appears to have occupied a Mankato office for seven years without paying rent, Politico reports, in what the story says "would be a clear violation of federal election law."
Southern Minnesota's Republican congressman has been subject to a series of unflattering stories as he's locked in a tough re-election fight with Democrat Dan Feehan. We've written several stories that show he was more closely involved with a constituent mail program in his office that came under fire, and earlier this week I reported that staff in his office was seeking favorable treatment for his wife, MNGOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan, at several national parks in Arizona.
Yet a visit to the Brett's Building revealed that, much like the fading department store sign on the three-story building, Hagedorn’s campaign office is a ghost.
The basement now has a Suite 8 and a Suite 6, but no Suite 7. A janitorial worker, who did not want to be quoted by name, said Hagedorn used to have a campaign office in the basement, but it has now been absorbed into Suite 11, which is home to Options for Women, a counseling service that exists to dissuade women from having abortions.
The worker said a postal delivery person also recently came looking for Suite 7, to no luck. The worker said she thinks Hagedorn moved into a Blue Earth County Republican Party office in the adjacent Mankato Place mall.
A worker in Hagedorn’s district office on the third floor directed a reporter to an office in a neighboring building that is occupied by Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee. . . .
My, my.
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