Four members of Congress have now donated $33,000 they received from scandal-plagued Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., to charity following inquiries by The Washington Examiner.
But dozens of other congressional recipients of Rangel’s campaign cash remain curiously silent about whether they will return the money.
The Examiner has been profiling recipients of Rangel donations for several months in its “Dirty Money Watch” series.
Rangel’s National Leadership Political Action Committee gave $884,000 to 106 House candidates and 11 Senate candidates during the 2008 campaign. Currently, 73 of those are House members, and nine hold Senate seats.
Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is under investigation for multiple ethical and legal improprieties. He was formally admonished by the House ethics committee last week for accepting trips to the Caribbean paid for in part by special interests with business before the Ways and Means Committee.
Following an inquiry by The Examiner, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., on Friday returned $2,000 donated to him by Rangel. On Monday, Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., told The Examiner he would donate $14,000 in Rangel contributions to the Northern Illinois Food Bank. The office of Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., also told The Examiner he had directed his staff to donate $10,000 to charity.
Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., also rejected a $7,000 donation she received from Rangel in 2007. A Tsongas aide told the Boston Herald on Friday that Tsongas did so “because [she] strongly believes that members of Congress have to be held to the highest ethical standards; she is disappointed by Congressman Rangel’s actions.”
Tsongas had not been included in The Examiner’s profiles, but she was criticized heavily by the National Republican Congressional Committee for accepting Rangel’s money.
But dozens of members of Congress remain mum about their Rangel money. Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., called for Rangel’s removal from the Ways and Means Committee chairmanship, but he has not returned multiple calls from The Examiner about the $10,000 he got from the embattled New York representative.
And Mitchell is not alone. The Examiner has called these representatives at least three times but gotten no response: Rep. Glenn Nye, D-Va.; Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa; Rep. Dan Maffei, D-N.Y.; Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Ohio; Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas; Rep. Larry Kissell, D-N.C.; Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C.; Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill.; Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla.; Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Pa.; Rep. Patrick J. Murphy, D-Pa.; Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo.; and Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa.
