Davids will reimburse campaign for 2018 clothing purchases after Adkins raises issue
Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids will reimburse her campaign for a pair of 2018 clothing purchases after Republican challenger Amanda Adkins’ campaign raised the issue of their legality.
Davids’ 2018 campaign finance records list a $412 payment to Banana Republic and $376 to White House Black Market.
The expenditures, reported for the primary campaign, are listed as “Personal Items for Candidate Debate,” but the money was disbursed after she won the general election.
Davids, a freshman Democrat, is considered a favorite by election forecasters to win re-election in the Kansas 3rd Congressional District, which covers Johnson, Wyandotte and Miami Counties.
She faces a challenge from Adkins, a Cerner executive and former Kansas Republican chair.
Adkins’ campaign Thursday called out Davids on the two-year-old payments and argued that they potentially violated a federal campaign finance law. It prohibits the use of campaign funds to pay for an “expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign,” such as clothing.
“With a price tag of nearly $800, it’s a nice outfit, but breaking federal election law is a bad look,” said Adkins’ spokesman Matthew Trail.
Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center, confirmed that the Adkins campaign was correct about the restrictions on clothing purchases, but he also said it was unlikely the Federal Election Commission would take up the issue as long as Davids repaid the campaign.
“Campaign funds may not be converted to personal use, and clothing purchases are considered personal use. If these expenditures were for clothing they would be impermissible, although I expect that the FEC would take a pass on this if Davids were to reimburse the campaign,” Fischer said in an email.
Davids’ campaign called the clothing issue an attempt by the Adkins campaign to distract from the fact that she is facing an FEC complaint related to her 2019 fundraising. But a Davids spokeswoman said that Davids would reimburse the campaign to resolve any issue with expenditures.
“The disbursement in October of 2018 was made exclusively for campaign events, and that’s how it was used,” Johanna Warshaw said in a statement, which also noted Davids’ status as one of least wealthy members of Congress.
“Rep. Davids will promptly reimburse the campaign for this purchase and we’d encourage Amanda Adkins to reimburse the $150,000 in excess contributions she’s taken in this election if she’s so passionate about campaign finance.”
Last week, a former Kansas Democratic Party official filed an FEC complaint against Adkins, alleging that she violated a rule that requires candidates to file for office within 15 days of raising or spending $5,000 after they become a candidate.
Adkins’ campaign maintains that she was complying with the “testing the waters” rule, which allows candidates to raise money through an exploratory campaign, and did not decide to run for office until August of 2019.
The Adkins campaign also attacked Davids for her co-sponsorship of H.R. 1, a Democratic proposal that would establish an array of election reforms. The campaign contended the bill would provide “up to $5 million in taxpayer funds for congressional campaigns and allowing campaign funds to be used for personal expenses.”
Fischer said this claim was false.
He said that the bill creates a public financing program for campaigns, “but the money does not come from ‘taxpayer funds.’ The program is funded by a 2.75 percent fee assessed on fines and penalties levied against corporations and CEOs. Clothing purchases would still be an unlawful use of campaign funds under H.R. 1.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 5:45 PM.
