...then why is John McCain doing this?
Given Senator John McCain's signature stance on campaign finance reform, it was not surprising that he backed legislation last year requiring presidential candidates to pay the actual cost of flying on corporate jets. The law, which requires campaigns to pay charter rates when using such jets rather than cheaper first-class fares, was intended to reduce the influence of lobbyists and create a level financial playing field.
But over a seven-month period beginning last summer, Mr. McCain's cash-short campaign gave itself an advantage by using a corporate jet owned by a company headed by his wife, Cindy McCain, according to public records. For five of those months, the plane was used almost exclusively for campaign-related purposes, those records show.Mr. McCain's campaign paid a total of $241,149 for the use of that plane from last August through February, records show. That amount is approximately the cost of chartering a similar jet for a month or two, according to industry estimates.
The senator was able to fly so inexpensively because the law specifically exempts aircraft owned by a candidate or his family or by a privately held company they control. The Federal Election Commission adopted rules in December to close the loophole -- rules that would have required substantial payments by candidates using family-owned planes -- but the agency soon lost the requisite number of commissioners needed to complete the rule making.
Because that exemption remains, Mr. McCain's campaign was able to use his wife's corporate plane like a charter jet while paying first-class rates, several campaign finance experts said. Several of those experts, however, added that his campaign's actions, while keeping with the letter of law, did not reflect its spirit.
"This amounts to a subsidy for his campaign, which is notable given how badly they were struggling last year," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that collects and analyzes campaign data.
Josh Marshall asks the right question:
Reading the piece, one question that suggests itself is why go through all the roundabout? McCain's wife can give him as much free air travel as she wants. That's just self-financing, which lots of candidates do completely legally. John Kerry, remember, took a loan out on his home to pour money into his campaign during its nadir just before Iowa. But remember, this was also around the time that McCain was kinda sorta opting in to the public financing system. So I'd be curious to hear how these two things would have interacted, what the legal repercussions would have been.
This reminds me of that story that broke near the ned of Giuliani's campaign about the potential misuse of funds on a security detail for his mistress. In the end that there didn't appear to be any illegal activity, but it looked so strange that it damaged him nonetheless. The Mayor's rep, after all, was that he had "cleaned up" the city and its government, and that story went directly against that narrative.
Same problem here. McCain's myth is that he is a squeaky clean champion of campaign finance reform. Worse still, the issue of private jets is something he has taken on directly within the past year. And yet here he is flying around on his wife's private jet and not fully disclosing the cost to the public. Why? He doesn't need to do this, so why does he feel the need?
UPDATE: Philly.com's Dick Polman does some excellent follow-up:
Cindy McCain, chairwoman of one of the nation's largest Anheuser-Busch distribution firms, and daughter of the rich guy who financed McCain's political career in 1980, just happened to own a midsized corporate jet. Flying in that jet would be a very effective way to slash costs and keep hope alive. But McCain last July specifically insisted that he would not tap his wife's assets in order to salvage his candidacy. He publicly stated: "I have never thought about it. I would never do such a thing..."
Well, apparently he was against "such a thing" before he decided he was for it - because he started flying on his wife's jet last August, and kept doing it all winter, well into the new year.It should be emphasized that flying in a family jet is not illegal. The feds, however, have been trying to level the playing field, to ensure that rich candidates with their own planes don't have an unfair advantage. The feds are (slowly) working up some new rules that would require candidates enjoying such elitist assets to pay more than a token amount for the privilege - by ponying up roughly the same amount of money that it would cost to fly on a chartered corporate jet. But those rules have not been finalized yet, so McCain over a seven-month period reportedly paid a relative pittance for his plane travel.
Result: As a member in long standing of Arizona's economic elite, McCain landed in a comfortable safety net and seriously slashed his overhead costs when he needed to most. A less-endowed candidate with the same campaign financial headaches might have simply pulled the plug on a White House bid.
And that's the real point here: without this safety net, one that he has supposedly spent his career trying to tear down, McCain would never have been able to survive the primary. When others do it, he wants it to be illegal, but when he does it, it is OK? That's just nonsensical.
And yet the maverick reputation lives on....
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