Outgoing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) has just over a week left before she'll be replaced by Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), but a government watchdog group alleges that she broke a key law on her way out the door.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said Sinema used campaign funds for personal purposes, cited The Arizona Republic on Tuesday. The group says that it has filed an official complaint.
“The rule of thumb is that any dollar your campaign spends has to be for the campaign — it can’t just be for your own personal benefit,” CREW president Noah Bookbinder said in a written statement. “It’s hard to see how any of this spending was for the benefit of the campaign.”
Also Read: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema no longer a California winery intern
The group explained that the Federal Election Campaign Act prevents any spending that “would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign.”
Sinema bailed on her election earlier in 2024, and the report noted that it caps off "a controversial single Senate term that alienated many on and off Capitol Hill."
The Republic reported in October that, after March, Sinema billed her campaign as much as $200,000 in travel expenses to visit France, Japan, the U.K. and other countries. According to CREW's complaint, the group has been unable to find any official purpose for the spending after "an extensive search of the public record."
The complaint alleges that for the past year, "Sinema appears to have used her principal campaign committee, Sinema for Arizona, to fund her personal travel, including domestic chartered and international flights as well as meals, catering, and lodging related to trips to Europe, Boston, the California wine country, and several other locations, which appear unrelated to any campaign or official business."
Once Sinema said that she was no longer running for office, it makes it difficult to justify an expense as a campaign expenditure.
“The law applies to you whether it’s your first week in office or your last,” Bookbinder said. “Spending thousands of dollars of campaign contributions on yourself is even more troubling when it comes after you’ve announced you’re no longer a candidate.”
Sinema finished her term with an expletive-laden parting shot to her Democratic critics in an interview. After being elected as a progressive, Sinema took a more conservative turn while also cozying up to big business and lobbyists.
