Posts Tagged ‘Aaron Schock’

So, Schock finally admits his campaign DID reimburse him for those visits to swanky hotels

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Ah, leave it to Fox News to try to pour cold water on reports that Aaron Schock took money from his campaign for all sorts of personal stuff.

First, the report talks about stuff that’s easy to deny:

According to a statement from Schock’s office, Schock paid for the DVD “personally” on his American Express card. It was “mistakenly” reported to the Federal Election Commission in July 2010, but was corrected days later.

“So that was corrected 20 months ago. The campaign never paid for the P90X DVD,” the statement said.

The next to the last paragraph is where the juicy news is located:

A spokesman acknowledged the hotel stay in Athens was a “mistake” which the congressman has since reimbursed the campaign for. “It was a credit card receipt that was included with a stack of other legitimate campaign expenses. That receipt should not have been mixed in with his campaign receipts for that month,” the spokesman said.

He continued: “Except for the charge for his hotel in Greece, the expenses are all reasonable expenses directly related to either campaign expenditures or fundraising costs.”

So in order to reimburse the campaign for the Greece hotel, the campaign had to PAY for the stay in the Greece hotel. Doesn’t his campaign have ANYBODY who looks over receipts that are submitted for reimbursement? Is there no one on his campaign who says “hey, waitaminute?”

One would think Steve Shearer, Schock’s campaign guru, would have something to do with that. But Shearer has represented clients before who had horrible campaign spending problems problems.

Actually, Aaron, I think you’ve besmirched your OWN character

Saturday, March 24th, 2012

This quote from Aaron Schock raised my level of gall:

One item that raised eyebrows was expenses at a luxury hotel in Greece. At an appearance in Peoria, Schock said to consider the source.

“All your viewers would need to do is google CREW, and they’re gonna see that it’s a left wing, George Soros funded group, whose goal it is to basically besmirch the character of any Republican office holder, that’s what they’ve done throughout the history of their organization,” said Schock.

OK, Congress. Point taken. Democrats point out the flaws in Republicans. And Republicans point out the flaws in Democrats. That’s the way politics works. But the fact is your flaws were there for this George-Soros-funded group to find in the first place.

Do you mind answering the question: What the HELL were you doing in Greece that caused you to think that you could pawn off this as a campaign expense? It was a mistake? It seems awfully mysterious that all these mistakes seemed to run toward putting campaign money in your pocket or the pockets of your friends and family.

And at the very least is shows a reluctance toward following the letter and spirit of campaign finance law. You have besmirched your own character by either running a sloppy campaign or by deliberately trying to get away with using campaign money as your personal slush fund.

But never mind. George Soros. Ooga booga.

Aaron Schock using campaign funds as ‘personal slush fund’ for himself and family

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

Well, you won’t see this in the pages of the Peoria Journal Star. A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington,  today accused Congressman Aaron Schock of using campaign funds as a personal slush fund for himself and his family:

The report says Schock’s campaign committee reimbursed him for more than $150,000 over the 2008 and 2010 election cycles, including paying for a stay at a five-star hotel in Athens, Greece. His campaign committee also reimbursed his mother almost $24,000 during the same period.

“A campaign account is not a personal slush fund,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan.

“It’s hard to fathom how a hotel stay in Greece could be a legitimate campaign expense, but that accounts for only a small portion of the money Rep. Schock pocketed from his campaign.  Conduct like this reinforces the widely held view that members of Congress are more interested in enriching themselves and their family members than in public service.”

Campaign records show Schock’s campaign committee reimbursed him over $150,000 during the 2008 and 2010 election cycles. More than $30,000 of these reimbursements were for hotels, including stays at high-end resorts in Athens and Miami.

Schock’s campaign committee also initially reported paying more than $300 to P90X, a fitness training DVD company, and classified it as a “health care” expense.  Additionally, the campaign committee reimbursed his mother, Janice Knapp, almost $24,000 for various expenses over the same time frame.

And I was right: There is nothing on PJStar.com about this. Good thing we have social media and blogs.

Hat tip to Twitter.

Better late than never to post critical stuff about Aaron Schock

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

Yeah, I’m a bit late in getting this posted, since Romney has come and left our fair city. But the points made here are valid and Aaron Schock should be made to answer for them. Click to enlarge.

What did Schock leave out?

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIgQhAajYGg&version=3&hl=en_US]

When talking about his investment property, he left our how he sold those three Bradley University-area rental homes to B.U. for much more than they they were worth so they could tear them down and build their colosseum.

It’s amazing how he continually buys properties right before some big institution decides they absolutely MUST own that land.

Yeah, it’s a real rags to rich story.

Schock dodges a remap bullet (mostly)

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Granted, Aaron Schock found himself in a vastly -re-drawn 18th District. Most of the city of Peoria found itself in the 17th District. It’s gonna be harder to win re-election.

But he escaped the fates of other fellow GOP Congressmen:

The Democrat-drawn congressional maps for the Chicago area and Downstate were crafted in a way that merged one of 2010’s successful Republican congressional candidates — U.S. Rep. Robert Dold (R-Ill.) — into the Democratic turf now owned by U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

Another from Illinois’ 2010 Republican freshman class, U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), saw his home moved by Democratic mapmakers from its current spot in the 11th Congressional District into the south-suburban district controlled by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.).

Schock is still in the 18th District. No current sitting Congressmen were moved here.

Area Dems have GOT to be POed. I was told two years go by a local Democratic Party member that Schock was toast and was destined to be but in a district facing ANOTHER sitting member.

 

Congressman Aaron Schock gets grilled on MCNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ program

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Forgive me, but I have not had time to view this. But apparently he is grilled about his support for subsidies to big business.

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