Rep. Tammy Duckworth, Democratic candidate for Senate in Illinois, presided over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs when it spent nearly $100,000 on media training in 2010 and 2011.
The pair of media training contracts were just a few of the questionable expenditures that took place under her leadership at the VA. While wasteful spending and lax oversight are endemic to the entire agency, Duckworth’s Republican opponent, Sen. Mark Kirk, has focused heavily on controversies stemming from her years at the VA.
“Rep. Duckworth wasted millions of taxpayer dollars while veterans waited in line for care,” Kevin Artl, Kirk’s campaign manager, told the Washington Examiner. “Tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars spent on media training and fine china is inexcusable. Duckworth has always put her own ambitions ahead of serving our veterans.”
Budget documents obtained from the VA through a Freedom of Information Act filed by the Kirk campaign show Duckworth’s VA office spent an estimated $90,000 on “media comm. training” in 2009 and an additional $7,000 on media training in 2011.
A Chicago Tribune review of other spending records from Duckworth’s tenure found a $2,100 expenditure on “china with the VA logo” and a $1,875 expenditure on “so-called ‘challenge coins’ with the VA logo on one side and her name on the other.”
The Duckworth campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
As the race between Duckworth and Kirk has heated up, the Democratic congresswoman has faced a growing number of questions about her VA record.
Kirk hit the Chicago airwaves in September with a television ad based on testimony from two VA whistleblowers who have accused Duckworth in court of retaliating against them when she served as director of the Illinois VA. The GOP incumbent has, however, acknowledged repeatedly that Duckworth is a “war hero” given her years spent in service to her country in the Army.
Former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich named Duckworth to the state-level VA post in 2006 before a corruption scandal forced him from office in 2009 and landed him in prison for more than a decade.
Also in 2009, President Obama elevated Duckworth to the federal VA as its assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs.
Waste, fraud and abuse have permeated the VA at nearly every level. High-level agency officials have repeatedly demonstrated their reluctance to rid the VA of employees who misbehave, and the agency has yet to shake a 2014 controversy over a nationwide scheme to conceal veterans’ wait times at dozens of taxpayer-funded hospitals.
Kirk is not the only Republican Senate incumbent to capitalize on VA failures in a tight reelection contest.
A political action committee supporting Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin aired ads earlier this year that featured VA whistleblowers accusing his opponent, former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, of ignoring warning signs about an infamously dysfunctional VA facility in their state. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey has also touted his fight against VA failures in a close race for the Keystone State seat.
But Kirk still faces an uphill battle to punch his return ticket to Washington in November.
While he trails Duckworth by an average of seven points, according to RealClearPolitics, the most recent poll conducted in his state had Duckworth ahead by 14 points.
Democrats place the Illinois race among their most promising opportunities to break the GOP’s hold on the Senate.
