May 05, 2023 10:34 AM UTC

Boebert Faces Yet Another Campaign Finance Complaint

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• by: Colorado Pols

Newsweek reports today on a new complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission by the Democratic-aligned national group End Citizens United against Colorado’s worst bookkeeper in Congress Rep. Lauren Boebert, alleging that Boebert misused funds from a PAC to pay for last-minute phone banking services in the hectic final days of the 2022 campaign she barely survived:

Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert has been accused of illegally spending $60,000 on campaign calls and texts in the run-up to November’s midterm election.

End Citizens United has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging the Republican’s political action committee spent tens of thousands of dollars on so-called “get out the vote” contact calls and texts that were not reported accurately.

According to the FEC filing, seen exclusively by Newsweek, Boebert, her campaign Lauren Boebert For Colorado, We The People Leadership PAC and Taylor Moose, her PAC and campaign treasurer, are accused of failing to accurately report communications as independent expenditures or in-kind contributions on their reports filed with the Commission.

In a statement, End Citizens United echoes the charge leveled against Boebert in several other cases: that Boebert used campaign funds as a “personal bank.”

“Congresswoman Boebert used her leadership PAC as a personal bank, but unfortunately for her, this practice is illegal under federal law,” said ECU President Tiffany Muller. [Pols emphasis] “The timing of the purchases, and the fact that they were made to the same vendor her campaign used, clearly illustrates that she was attempting to bypass federal law in order to either influence her own race or another campaign. The FEC should launch an investigation into this corrupt scheme and hold Congresswoman Boebert accountable.”

Since Boebert’s election in 2020, her campaign has been repeatedly scrutinized for paperwork “mistakes” that in practice appeared to be Boebert using campaign funds to pay for personal expenses. This came after Boebert filed for a huge “mileage reimbursement” from her campaign account that just happened to be close to the size of a tax lien against Boebert’s Shooters’ Grill. This latest complaint essentially alleges that Boebert used leadership PAC money to pay for “hard side” campaign expenses without reporting it as an in-kind contribution.

Boebert’s well-earned reputation for suspiciously sloppy bookkeeping puts the onus on her campaign to show how this was not a violation. If it’s a valid complaint, it means illegal spending played a role in Boebert’s exceedingly narrow 546-vote victory last November. In a race that close, any amount of provable chicanery is a big deal.

Perhaps this will be the one that, as they say, sticks.