A former congressman who used his political action committee as a slush fund for his daughters said he has an eye on a congressional seat held by a philandering congressman who was caught on surveillance video kissing one of his aides.
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA), who recently left Congress to work in Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration, was one of the villains in Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer’s book, Extortion. Alexander paid two of his daughters tens of thousands of dollars from his campaign funds for what he claimed was political work.
Rep. Vance McAllister (R-LA), who took Alexander’s seat, was just caught in a surveillance video kissing a female aide who was not his wife.
Now Alexander says he’s looking at making another run. “I would never say anything is off of the table,” Alexander told the News-Star on Thursday. “If I felt like the people of Louisiana and the 5th District wanted me for a particular purpose or office, I am willing to serve them.”
The plot line gets more interesting when one considers that a Louisiana pastor and another witness have accused McAllister’s district manager, who once worked for Alexander, of leaking the video to the press. The pastor also alleged that two former Alexander staffers may have seen or known about the surveillance video from last year.
Alexander was seen in the 60 Minutes exposé about Schweizer’s best-selling book, Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets. As Breitbart News reported, Alexander “was running virtually unopposed en route to winning his race in 2012 with 78% of the vote” when he “funneled $130,000 from his leadership PAC to his two daughters for ‘campaign work.'”
Host Steve Kroft said to Schweizer, “For some congressmen and senators, this is sort of a family business.”
“I think it’s the kind of nepotism that, in large parts of American society, we frown about. I mean, in corporate America, a lot of corporations have policies that relate to nepotism and the hiring and firing of individual people,” Schweizer said. “But Congress has created this domain that allows them to decide whether something is ethical or whether something is good. And it’s another example, unfortunately, where the rules that apply to the rest of us don’t really apply to members of Congress.”
Kroft confronted Alexander in his congressional office and said, “It just looks like you’re using your campaign funds to enrich your family.”
Alexander replied that “somebody has to do” the campaign work and that his daughters did what other campaign employees do.
“Well, I kept it with somebody that I can trust, and if one can’t trust their daughter, then who can they trust?” Alexander replied to Kroft.
The exposé found that Alexander gave “$73,000 to Lisa Lowe and $57,000 to Ginger,” his two daughters.
McAllister has said that he intends to run for reelection.
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