February 04, 2010 12:35 AM UTC

Rep. King's "Double-Dipping" Gets a Sympathy Plea

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• by: Colorado Pols

Yesterday afternoon, government watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch accused Rep. Steve King of double-billing for reimbursement for travel expenses, both to the state and to his own campaign account. The story developed quickly yesterday and initial hearings were held today, the Denver Post’s Jessica Fender updates:

Grand Junction Rep. Steve King, facing an ethics probe into whether he charged both the state and his campaign for travel expenses, reimbursed his campaign $1,025 in April and May, a legislative ethics panel heard this morning.

The repayment came long before a Denver watchdog group filed a complaint against King, R-Grand Junction, which Republican Rep. Mark Waller said casts a new light on the allegations of double dipping.

“It’s a payday loan from the campaign account,” Waller said. “He’s a rural legislator who makes $30,000 a year. He had car problems, and doesn’t have money to rent a car. He says, ‘Let me borrow from the campaign account.'”

It’s unclear whether borrowing from a campaign, asking the state for reimbursement and then repaying the campaign poses an ethical problem, several of the lawmakers on the panel said…

Frankly, we’re of two minds on this one and looking for guidance just like the legislators sitting in judgment: one the one hand, we don’t think this explanation is going to pass legal muster, though we’d say the quick repayment does probably count for something in terms of assessing any penalty. He knows he shouldn’t have done it, though, even if the rules were vague–this is a slippery slope to campaign accounts becoming personal revolving charge accounts and can never become regular practice. Also, “payday loans” charge interest, don’t they?

On the other hand, have you ever tried living on $30,000 a year? It’s a very significant hardship even when nothing unplanned happens like your car breaking down, and what King allegedly did doesn’t seem to quite rise to the level of, say, Joe Stengel billing per diem for nearly every day of the year, Hawaii vacation included. What say you?