Democratic Senator Cory Booker may have been the media darling with his marathon speech he pulled off on Capitol Hill last week.
But the move may have also violated some major ethics rules, too.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed a complaint with the Senate ethics subcommittee over Booker, claiming that he was fundraising off his marathon floor speech last week.
The watchdog says is a violation of the chamber’s ethics rules.
In a letter dated yesterday to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, chaired by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., FACT said several solicitations were sent before, during and after Booker’s speech that directly linked “official actions with solicitations for campaign contributions.”
That is a violation, FACT said.
“Senate Ethics Rules do not allow Senators to directly link official action to solicitations for campaign contributions. It is clear Sen. Booker’s speech had a clear campaign purpose. Not only did he send out a series of campaign emails alerting recipients to the speech, but he also directly tied his speech to email and text campaign solicitations,” FACT wrote to Lankford and ranking member Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.
FACT also provided several examples of no less than seven posts to social media that included some combination of links to Booker’s campaign shop, requests for campaign contributions and solicitations to sign up for his campaign list.
“The ethics rules draw a clear line between official government business and campaign activity, and it is important these rules are enforced to prevent Congress from simply becoming a venue for campaigning. Specifically with respect to fundraising, it is not allowed to be tied to any official action a Senator undertakes, including a speech on the Senate floor. Doing so gives the unmistakable impression that their official actions can be influenced by campaign contributions, something the Rules clearly prohibit,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, wrote to Lankford and Coons.
Booker held the Senate floor with a speech that lasted more than 25 hours to show Democrats’ resistance to President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions.
It set the record for the longest continuous Senate floor speech.
It was also a running tab of violations, FACT said.
“I hope the Senate Ethics Committee will take action on this case and others like it to discourage other Senators from fundraising off official actions and to maintain citizen’s confidence in Congress,” Arnold wrote.