Watchdog Says Katie Porter May Have Abused Official Resources for Political Purposes

A watchdog group filed an ethics complaint this week with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to request an investigation into Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), who recently launched a Senate campaign, for potentially abusing official taxpayer-funded resources for political purposes.

The complaint from Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) says that Porter’s taxpayer-funded office used official funds to pay for ads that were “overtly” political in 2022.

In addition, the ads contained “identical messaging or images to ads that her campaign ran and were often times completely indistinguishable from her campaign ads.” Some of the ads paid for by taxpayer dollars contained “political phrases” and “political messages” such as “Holding Oil Companies” or “Delivering Results,” the complaint explained.

FACT also revealed that Porter’s official office and congressional campaign paid the same advertising vendor, Wavelength Strategy. It was noted in the complaint that Wavelength Strategy, a digital ad vendor for “Democratic campaigns,” was paid $130,500 from the congresswoman’s official office from June to August 2022 and $1.6 million from the congresswoman’s campaign from February to November 2022.

The complaint added:

Not only do the ads themselves appear political, in multiple cases Porter actually used taxpayer funds to disseminate these political messages until she was prohibited by the rules from doing so, and then her campaign took over and disseminated the same messages. Once Porter characterized an ad as a political communication (by paying to have it delivered in her campaign), she can not then characterize it as an official communication, and vice versa.

Additionally, FACT explained the Federal laws and House ethics rules that require there to be a strict divide between campaign and official acts:

Federal law states that “appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made …” The House ethics rules reinforce this law and prohibit Members from using taxpayer funded resources for campaign or political purposes. One official resource is “official communications,” which House rules again specifically reiterate cannot be used for any campaign or political purpose. Any communication paid for by taxpayer funds “may only be used for official Congressional business” and cannot be used for any political purpose. The Communication Standards Manual also sets forth several examples of content that is not allowed in official communications, including: (1) no campaign content or electioneering; (2) no content developed using campaign resources; (3) no grassroots lobbying; and (4) no content laudatory of a Member on a personal or political basis. Finally, no unsolicited mass communications, including digital advertisements regardless of cost, may be distributed within 90 days before a primary or general election.

“For anyone who takes the time to view both sets of ads, they will plainly see the ads run by taxpayers were often indistinguishable from and those run by Porter’s campaign, clearly demonstrating these were political messages,” said FACT Executive Director Kendra Arnold.

“The laws at issue, in this case, are extremely important because not only do they protect taxpayer funds from abuse, but they address the public perception that incumbents are simply using their office to run for reelection,” Arnold continued. “The reason for that perception is quite evident in Rep. Porter’s actions. Moreover, her use of official resources in this case does not reflect credibly on the House.”

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Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.