Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Ron Paul Spends Campaign Donations On Family

Thanks to the reader who pointed me to this Washington Post article:

And that's more or less what he has been doing over the past few months, putting relatives in a slew of key positions and paying them a total of $169,063, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

Paul's granddaughter Valori Pyeatt helps organize fundraising receptions and has been paid $17,157. Another granddaughter, Laura Paul ($2,724), handles orders for Ron Paul merchandise. Grandson Matthew Pyeatt ($3,251) manages Paul's MySpace profile. Daughter Peggy Paul ($2,224) helps with campaign logistics. The candidate's sons Randall and Robert and his daughter Joy Paul LeBlanc have all been paid for campaign travel and for appearing as surrogates at political events.

Who keeps track of all these finances? Paul's brother and daughter, naturally, who have been paid a combined $62,740 to handle the campaign's accounting.

Campaign aides said they discussed the possibility that involving so many family members could create the impression that nepotism was driving hiring decisions, but ultimately they saw no problem with the practice.

"You always think about those kinds of things," said Jesse Benton, Paul's spokesman and, it just so happens, the fiance of one of the candidate's granddaughters (he has been paid $54,573). "But his family is very important to him. There is something important about having a family element involved in a campaign. Having people around you that you can unconditionally trust."

For all their talk of free market competition to select the best and most qualified agents for the job, the Ron Paul campaign seems to be relying on a much older method for choosing his staff: Nepotism. As though we didn't get enough of that with the last Texas GOP presidential candidate.

Given Ron Paul's high success with fund raisers and his low performance in the polls, the Paultards were left with two burning questions: Where was all that money going, and where was Ron Paul finding the idiots who were running his campaign? Well, now we have the answer to both questions.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ron Paul slim jims!

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2229718737&topic=41627

Anonymous said...

What?
You want to restrict his freedom to hire whoever he wants?

BadCo

Anonymous said...

Read further..."It was a matter of ensuring there were no more third parties that attempted to screw up my brother's campaign by not filing proper returns," (Wayne Paul).

That's right folks, the accountants are out to get him!!!

If I made this up, people would call it unrealistic!

I'm going to miss these nutjobs when they're gone...

Anonymous said...

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/50602

wow Rand Paul seems ultra defensive about this issue, i am guessing there is something that either him or ron did that really crossed a line.