The legislation would amend existing laws that give control of funds to the campaign’s treasurer.
“It would be the same personal use restrictions,” Ingram said. Among those is the campaign of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), who died unexpectedly in August 2008 after suffering a brain hemorrhage. In addition to expenditures on salaries and office space, the most recent FEC report for Tubbs Jones’ campaign lists a half dozen items for the late lawmaker’s “adopted daughters,” a group of 14 high school girls whom Tubbs Jones mentored in Ohio. According to Gloria Nance, the campaign’s assistant treasurer and Tubbs Jones’ former fundraiser, the expenditures are considered donations, although the group is not a formal charity. “These girls are from a distressed area here in town,” Nance said of the group, all of whom are high school sophomores. “They’re not able to do any of this on their own.” Nance said Tubbs Jones began the group, informally known as “STJ’s adopted daughters,” two years ago, when the students were in eighth grade.
“She took them under her wing, met with them regularly,” Nance said. “She took them to church. She took them to meet prominent officials in the area.”