FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 2024
CONTACT:
Coby Eiss
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ICYMI: COACHELLA VALLEY INDEPENDENT EXPOSES KEN CALVERT ABUSING TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO BOOST HIS CAMPAIGN
“Ken Calvert Has a History of Sending Taxpayer-Funded Campaign Pieces in the Days Leading up to Elections”
CORONA, C.A. — Over the weekend, the Coachella Valley Independent released a new investigative report diving into Ken Calvert’s long history of exploiting loopholes in government-funded communication regulations in order to use taxpayer dollars to boost his campaign.
House Administration rules clearly state that no mass communications may be sent out in the 60 days preceding an election, constituting the “blackout period.” The Independent’s report found that Calvert’s official office in Washington, D.C. has been abusing their franking privileges by sending out numerous batches of mailings during these blackout periods in quantities of 499 pieces or less to avoid being classified as mass communications.
When asked about the 499 loophole during the Independent’s report, Will Rollins issued the following statement:
“Taxpayer dollars should never be exploited by career politicians like Ken Calvert to boost their own campaigns. In 2022, Calvert used his franked mail to credit himself for $20 million in Riverside County transportation projects, even though he famously voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that delivered hundreds of millions of dollars for projects in our district. When I have the honor of serving the 41st District in Congress, I’ll support reforms to franked communications to ensure that they can’t be used for campaign purposes. No matter your party, we should prioritize public service over personal gain.”
This new report reminding voters of Calvert’s unethical practices directly follows other reports from the LA Times and Press-Enterprise on a new ethics complaint filed by a watchdog group against Ken Calvert. Calvert failed to disclose properties in the 41st District owned by him and his business partners that benefit from transportation projects he funded through taxpayer money in earmarks, potentially increasing these properties’ values.
Read more below.
Coachella Valley Independent: Legal but Unethical: Rep. Ken Calvert Has a History of Sending Taxpayer-Funded Campaign Pieces in the Days Leading up to Elections, Using a Congressional-Rules Loophole
Jimmy Boegle | August 18, 2024
- Back in February, tens of thousands of constituents in California’s 41st Congressional District received large color postcards in the mail from Rep. Ken Calvert.
- It’s not unusual for members of Congress to send taxpayer-funded mailings and other communications to constituents…[t]he timing, however, was curious: It’s against House of Representatives rules to send unsolicited mass communications in the 60 days “immediately before the date of any primary or general election (whether regular, special or runoff) in which the member is a candidate for public office.” Since California’s primary was on March 5, the blackout period started Jan. 5.
- But there’s a way to get around the rule—specifically, a loophole Calvert, who has been in Congress since 1993, has used in a big way before previous elections. It’s often called the “499 loophole,” because House rules define “mass mailings/communications” as 500 or more pieces of substantially identical content.
- When the Independent asked Jason Gagnon, a spokesman for Rep. Calvert’s office, about the aforementioned mailer, he said via email that the mailer “was sent (to) fewer than 500 constituents and therefore is not considered a mass communication by the House Communications Standards Commission.” When asked in a follow-up email if multiple batches of mailers were sent around the same time, Gagnon confirmed there were.
- Gagnon responded: “We sent out postcards on approximately 120 various topics (during the blackout period)—each to fewer than 500 recipients in accordance with House of Representatives communications rules.”…If Calvert’s office sent out 120 mailings during the pre-primary blackout period, each in batches of 499, that’s 59,880 pieces of mail.
- In other words, even though these mailings were all taxpayer-funded, Calvert’s office would not share them with the Independent.
- Calvert’s office admits that the congressman has a history of using the “499 loophole” to send taxpayer-funded mailings during pre-election blackout periods.
- “No, it’s not ethical,” said John Pelissero, the director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, and a professor emeritus of political science at Loyola University Chicago. “The real ethical problem is one of the optics of this. He’s clearly following the letter of the law, but in a way that says he’s going to find a way around the intent of the law.”
- The 60-day blackout on mass communications before elections is in place to keep members of Congress from unfairly using taxpayer-funded mailings for what would effectively be campaigning.
- “This is actually very uncommon,” [Pelissero] said. “It’s clearly an attempt to ignore the law by using legal means to get around the law. The intent of the law is to create a level playing field. Most (members of Congress) are attentive to the law, and try to be good stewards. The thing about being in Congress is you get a lot more attention from media for the things you do. For the most part, Congress would like to avoid that (bad press).”
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Will Rollins is a Palm Springs resident and Southern California native. A former federal prosecutor and counterterrorism law attorney, he is now the Democratic nominee for Congress in California’s 41st Congressional District. California’s 41st District is shaping up to be a key 2024 matchup that will help decide the House majority. Punchbowl News called it the #2 most critical race in the battle for control of the House, and the National Journal ranked it as one of its 15 seats most likely to flip this November.
