Donor-funded duds were not unique to Palin, group says

WASHINGTON — Turns out Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin wasn't the only candidate with donor-financed duds.

At least five candidates — including Bill Dew, who ran for the 2nd Congressional District in Utah — used campaign money for clothing, according to a complaint that a watchdog group filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said the campaigns of Democratic Reps. Loretta Sanchez of California and Rob Andrews of New Jersey, Republican candidates Dew of Utah and William Breazeale of North Carolina and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr each spent hundreds of dollars on clothing.

The group says that violates a ban on personal use of campaign money. Earlier, the group filed a complaint against the Republican National Committee for buying tens of thousands of dollars worth of clothing for Palin, the party's vice presidential nominee. The RNC and Palin have said they did nothing wrong. And the McCain-Palin campaign has said some of the clothing was returned to stores soon after its purchase.

The RNC has received and inventoried remaining items and they "will be appropriately dispersed to various charities," spokesman Alex Conant said Tuesday.

CREW's review of campaign finance reports found Dew's campaign spending $1,089 on clothing for him at Men's Wearhouse; Sanchez's campaign spending about $189 on "meeting clothing" for Sanchez; Breazeale's campaign purchasing $1,000 in clothing for Breazeale at a men's store in North Carolina; and $954 in clothing purchased by Andrews' campaign after Andrews' luggage was lost. Barr aide Andrew MacPherson received a $500 clothing allowance from Barr's campaign, a filing with the FEC shows.

In Sanchez's case, the $189 included only $145 for clothing; the rest was actually for meeting costs, spokeswoman Paula Negrete said. The clothing was cultural attire that Sanchez wore at various Vietnamese events in her district, an expense that doesn't fall under the personal use restriction, Negrete said. CREW double-counted the $145, she said.

Andrews' luggage was lost by an airline in June 2007 while Andrews was traveling to give a speech, spokesman Fran Tagmire said.

"Because he had to dress for his speech immediately, he had to purchase an entirely new set of clothes," Tagmire said in a written statement. "The campaign credit card used to pay for the clothing was reimbursed in total by the airline, which wrote a check for $952.04 to the Congressman on July 20, 2007. The congressman then endorsed the check over to the campaign account on July 20, 2007. Thus, the campaign incurred no expense for the clothing."