Jackson Family Values
Bloomberg News has an amazing story about the financial self-dealing of Rep. Jesse Jackson and his wife, Sandra.
Representative Jesse Jackson Jr.’s congressional campaign organization has paid his wife at least $247,500 since 2001, including at least $95,000 after Sandra Jackson joined the Chicago City Council two years ago, according to federal election records.
Jackson’s political committee also gave at least $298,927 in cash and in-kind contributions to Sandra Jackson’s campaign fund, which bankrolled her races for a city council seat that pays more than $100,000 per year and an unpaid position on the Cook County Democratic Committee.Sandra Jackson, known as Sandi, received the $95,000 for political consulting after pledging during her campaign to give “my full attention” to the alderman’s post.
Jackson obtained an advisory opinion from the Federal Elections Commission approving the legality of all this. Without suggesting he's breaking any law, the synergies here are eyebrow-raising to put it mildly:
* Jesse Jackson hired Sandi Jackson’s chief of staff, Bonita Parker, as a “special assistant” on his taxpayer-funded congressional staff in April 2008, paying her $22,000 through March 31, federal records show. Over the same period, Parker made an annual city salary of $77,724 in 2008, which rose to $80,052 on Jan. 1, said Constance Buscemi, a city spokeswoman.
* Last November, Sandi Jackson’s political committee paid for a statewide poll showing her husband as “the favorite” among Illinois voters to fill Obama’s Senate seat.
* Jesse Jackson’s FEC reports list payments as being made to J. Donatella & Associates, which Bryant described as “Sandi’s sole proprietorship” for her consulting work. The couple’s oldest child is 9-year-old Jessica Donatella Jackson. From 2003 through mid-2005, the recipient is shown on Jackson’s reports as “Lee Stevens” or “Lee Steven” at the J. Donatella firm. Sandi Jackson’s middle name is Lee. Her maiden name is Stevens. “Using all these different names to describe the same person raises questions as to whether they’re intentionally disguising information on their FEC reports,” said Jan Baran, a Republican election lawyer at Wiley Rein LLP in Washington and a former FEC official.