A recap of how Marco Rubio charged thousands in personal expense on his GOP card
- Senator Marco Rubio is a front-runner for the Republican nod for 2016
- But as a member of the Florida House, he used his home as a base for a political committee
- He spent nearly $85,000 on ‘office/operating costs’ and $65,000 on administrative costs.
- His wife, Jeanette, was treasurer for one, receiving $5,700 in expenses, for ‘gas and meals’
- He charged car repairs, Apple products, fancy dinners and even a $134 haircut on Republican Party American Express card
- Rubio only repaid the state party once he was caught out, claims a former supporter
- In his last financial statement to Congress he said he had at least $450,000 in liabilities
Republican presidential front-runner Marco Rubio charged thousands of dollars of personal expenses on a party-issued credit card, used his home as the base for his political committee and hired his wife, who billed $5,700 in ‘gas and food’ expenses, a Daily Mail Online investigation into his finances has revealed.
Car repairs, fancy dinners and even a $134 haircut were among the items he charged on the American Express card, which was supposed to pay for only Republican Party-related expenses.
One former supporter even revealed the Florida senator confided to him that he charged more than $4,000 to the card to pay for new flooring in his Miami-area home.
Party business or monkey business? Car repairs, Apple products, fancy dinners and even a $134 haircut were among the items Senator Marco Rubio charged on the American Express card which was supposed to pay for only Republican Party-related expenses. He says a 2010 report by a law firm into the claims of wrongdoing had found that charges were related to party business
‘We were in a Starbucks in Tampa and we sat down to get to know one another,’ former political consultant Chris Ingram told Daily Mail Online. ‘I asked him if there was anything that might be a problem in his upcoming campaign. He told me “I have this issue with an American Express card where we accidentally charged $4-5,000 for home flooring.”‘
Rubio’s history of mingling of personal expenses with those of his political party – he says he’s paid them all back – are bound to come up during what promises to be a hard-fought primary battle and, if he is successful, to become a major part of next year’s race for the White House.
‘What worries me is if Marco Rubio were to win the party’s nomination, you can be sure that Democrats will make a big deal of it in the general election,’ said Mike Fazano, a former Majority Leader in the Florida House of Representatives, who gave Rubio an early leg-up on his political rise by appointing him a party whip.
Rubio’s campaign dismissed the allegations as ‘old stuff that we have addressed in the past.’ His communications director Alex Conant told Daily Mail Online that a 2010 report by law firm Alston & Bird into the claims of wrongdoing had found that charges were related to party business.’
Rubio, 43, is among the least well-off of the Republicans running for the White House. When he left the Florida House of Representatives in 2008 he said he had a net worth of $8,351 while having hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt from mortgages and $115,000 in student loans. In his last financial statement to Congress he said he had at least $450,000 in liabilities.
The new focus on Rubio’s financial dealings comes as the New York Times reported on how his rise from being the son of impoverished Cuban immigrants to one of the country’s most enigmatic and powerful senators has been largely bankrolled by one man.
The paper called billionaire car dealer Norman Braman a ‘remarkable and unique patron’ to Rubio.
‘He has bankrolled Mr. Rubio’s campaigns. He has financed Mr. Rubio’s legislative agenda,’ wrote the Times. ‘And, at the same time, he has subsidized Mr. Rubio’s personal finances, as the rising politician and his wife grappled with heavy debt and big swings in their income.’
Former political consultant Chris Ingram (left) told Daily Mail Online he asked Rubio if there was anything that might be a problem in his upcoming campaign. ‘He told me “I have this issue with an American Express card where we accidentally charged $4-5,000 for home flooring.'” Peter Butzin of Common Cause Florida told Daily Mail Online, ‘Marco Rubio was following a long-time tradition of using political slush fund money for political purposes and for private purposes.’
Braman hired Rubio as a lawyer, gave his wife, former Miami Dolphins cheerleader Jeanette Dousdebes a job advising his family’s philanthropic foundation, covered Rubio’s salary as a college instructor and let him use his private plane.
‘Even in an era dominated by super-wealthy donors, Mr. Braman stands out, given how integral he has been not only to Mr. Rubio’s political aspirations but also to his personal finances,’ said the Times.
But it is Rubio’s apparent difficulty keeping his personal finances separated from those of his party that has Republicans concerned.
The credit card bills show Rubio charged items including $765.05 at Apple’s online store, as well as the $134 haircut and items such as $114.70 at Mario the Baker, $10.50 at an AMC movie theater and $68 at Happy Wine liquor store near his home. Rubio claims the Happy Wine charges were ‘to buy sandwiches for working lunches in my office, a legitimate expense.’
Other charges on the American Express card included $1,456.87 at Disneyworld, $761.54 at Costco and $171.15 at the Flower Mart of Hialeah, Florida as well as several hundred dollars in delinquency payments.
Rubio also charged the party $1,000 for repairs – carried out by one of Braman’s companies – to his family’s minivan, He said the vehicle was damaged by a parking valet at a Republican Party event.
He then charged a further $2,976.15 for an Avis hire car he says he needed for five weeks.
Columnist Carl Hiaasen of the Miami Herald took him to task for one AmEx bill for $412 charged at All Fusion Electronics in Miami for ‘computer repairs.’
‘If you visit All Fusion, you won’t see many computers. However, the company does sell drum kits, guitars and karaoke machines,’ wrote Hiaasen.
A 2006 family reunion in Georgia is another classic example of questionable financial judgment on the part of Rubio.
His former chief-of-staff Richard Corcoran put thousands of dollars on his card to pay for a Rubio family trip at the plush Melhana Plantation in Georgia, now called Coalson Plantation. However Rubio said that was an error as Corcoran had given the resort his card to pay for a dinner for senior staffers to celebrate his Senate victory. That dinner was canceled and the card, Rubio claims, was inadvertently used to pay for the reunion.
Rubio charged a further $2,976.15 for an Avis hire car he says he needed for five weeks, $1,456.87 at Disney World, $1,000 to Braman for repair of the family car, $765.05 at the Apple Web store and $412 at All-Fusion, he said was for computer equipment. It is a store that sells musical instruments.
Rubio claimed at the time that his travel agent had mistakenly used the party card to reserve 20 rooms.
Ingram told Daily Mail Online that Rubio’s explanation is unbelievable.
‘A whole bunch of people stayed several nights at a resort and not one of them questioned why they didn’t get a bill shoved under their door at the end of it,’ he said. ‘And once Marco realized what had happened, he had to embarrassingly go to his family members and collect $500 from each?
‘That’s just not believable. The whole notion is absolutely preposterous.’
‘I paid for the entire personal charge,’ Rubio said at the time. ‘The Republican Party of Florida never paid for any of it.’
But the party revealed it ended up paying more than $700 in a report filed with the Florida Division of Elections.
‘What worries me is if Marco Rubio were to win the party’s nomination, you can be sure that Democrats will make a big deal of it in the general election,’ says Mike Fazano, a former Majority Leader in the Florida House of Representatives
Conant, Rubio’s spokesman, also referred Daily Mail Online to Rubio’s 2012 autobiography, An American Son, in which the senator said that rather than pay for his expenses and then seek reimbursement from the party he decided to use the card. ‘I would be responsible for paying any charges that were not incurred in my work for the party,’ he wrote.
He said he charged some $160,000 on the card between January 2005 and October 2008, of which 89 percent was for ‘travel, lodging, fuel and meals.’
‘But from time to time a few personal expenses were charged to the card as well. For example, I pulled the wrong card from my wallet to pay for pavers. My travel agent mistakenly used the card to pay for a family reunion in Georgia — a single expenditure that represented 65 percent of personal charges on the card. Each time I identified the charges and paid the costs myself.
‘Nevertheless, in hindsight, I wish that none of them had ever been charged,’ he added, saying it allowed political opponents an avenue to attack him. ‘As often as it is remarked, it always bears repeating: in politics appearances are as important as reality.’
Two political committees that Rubio founded while serving in the Florida House in 2003 and 2004 also came under scrutiny.
He based one committee in his Miami home and spent nearly $85,000 on ‘office/operating costs’ and $65,000 on administrative costs. His wife, Jeanette, was treasurer for one, receiving $5,700 in expenses, much of it for ‘gas and meals’.
‘Rubio failed to disclose $34,000 in expenses — including $7,000 he paid himself — for one of the committees as required by state law,’ the St. Petersburg Times reported in 2010.
He also hired relatives, paying them nearly $14,000 in ‘courier fees,’ and billed more than $51,000 in unitemized ‘travel expenses’ for himself, the Times — now known as the Tampa Bay Times — said.
Rubio’s campaign adviser Todd Harris, admitted to the Times ‘The bookkeeping in (that) committee was not always perfect,’ adding: ‘While every penny was accounted for not all of the bureaucratic paperwork was filed and we will take whatever steps are appropriate to make sure that gets done.’
‘I don’t think anything Marco did was illegal, but whether someone should be spending someone else’s money so blatantly and with no concern for where it came from is an issue,’ added Fasano, now tax collector for Pasco County, north of Tampa, a supporter of former Florida Gov.Jeb Bush.
Ingram agrees, pointing out that Rubio only repaid the state party once he was caught out. ‘Marco Rubio has a well-established pattern of abusing other people’s money and lying about it,’ he told Daily Mail Online.
‘Every time he comes up with these excuses that sound really good coming from his silver tongue until you actually think about what he is saying.’
Ingram said voters should be concerned because political parties are tax-exempt, so the IRS insists donations do not cover any personal expenses.
‘It would be my estimation that the IRS should have looked at his expenses as earned income. Did he ever report it?’ asked Ingram.
Candidates often come under pressure to publish their tax returns during campaigns for the White House.
Rubio is in a close-run battle for the GOP presidential nomination. He topped two recent polls and is generally seen as being in the first tier of candidates along with Bush and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. A whole slew of other candidates including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are a few points back.
His troubles center on his use of the party-issued American Express card when he was Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives from 2006 to 2008. Former Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer went to jail for misusing his party-issued credit card around the same time.
‘The leaders of the Republican Party of Florida chose to look the other way for the spending habits of certain individuals while at the same time accusing me of improperly spending and taking money,’ Greer, now free after serving 15 months in jail for money laundering, told Daily Mail Online.
‘It was clearly a double standard which ultimately resulted in me being charged with a crime.’
Greer believes the party pursued him because he was a supporter of former Gov. Charlie Crist who was opposing Rubio in a primary for an open seat in the U.S. Senate — and didn’t go after Rubio and others.
‘The process requires the party to allege a crime,’ said Greer, 52. ‘And they picked and chose who they wanted to make those allegations against. On any given day what one person does was OK and on the next day what another person does was not OK.’
Rubio claimed he was ‘as diligent as possible’ in making sure he paid for his own personal expenses. He said he paid back $16,052 in ’07 and ’08. ‘There was no formal process provided by the party regarding personal charges,’ he said in 2010.
But Republican Party of Florida spokeswoman Katie Gordon told the Miami Herald that same year: ‘The RPOF American Express card is a corporate card and is meant to be used for business expenses.’
Government watchdog groups have also been on Rubio’s case. ‘Co-mingling personal expenses with campaign expenses is clearly wrong,’ Peter Butzin of Common Cause Florida told Daily Mail Online, although he pointed out that Rubio is not alone in bending the rules.
‘Marco Rubio was following a long-time tradition of using political slush fund money for political purposes and for private purposes.’
Rubio’s credit card payments also revealed some instances of double-dipping. He was forced to repay the Republican Party of Florida nearly $3,000 when it was revealed that he had billed both the party and state taxpayers for eight airline tickets between his home in Miami and Tallahassee, the state capital.
‘Billing the party was a mistake which needs to be fixed,’ Rubio said at the time. ‘So out of an abundance of caution, I am personally reimbursing the party for the cost of all eight flights.’
His actions were slammed as ’embarrassing,’ ‘hard to fathom’ and ‘utterly irresponsible,’ by author Manuel Roiz-Fangio in his 2012 biography, The Rise of Marco Rubio.
Rubio’s personal finances also came under scrutiny, especially when it came to property.
‘He made a $200,000 profit selling a house he owned to the mother of a chiropractor who was lobbying for a change in state insurance rules. Rubio had been a holdout, but removed a block on the measure shortly after the home sale and voted for it,’ Roiz-Fangio wrote.
There was also a house he bought in Tallahassee in 2005 with now-shamed political ally David Rivera. It went into foreclosure after the pair failed to make mortgage payments for five months, although they later ponied up.
They still own the three-bed, two-bath single story house on Bent Willow Drive, though it is now for sale at $10,000 less than they paid for it ten years ago.
Just last month the Florida House ethics committee said Rivera should pay back nearly $58,000 for double-billing taxpayers for state travel.
And Roiz-Fangio also reported on another property deal. ‘Rubio was criticized for failing to disclose a home equity loan he received from U.S. Century Bank, whose chairman, Sergio Pino, was a political supporter,’ he revealed.
The house was valued at $185,000 more than Rubio paid for it just five weeks after he bought it, Roiz-Fangio said. That allowed him to get a better deal on his home equity loan.
‘Rubio’s staff said the value jumped because he’d locked in a lower pre-construction price and made improvements. U.S. Century Bank – a large recipient of federal bank bailout money – denied making a sweetheart deal,’ wrote the author.
(From: Daily Mail)
