How Pete Sessions Lives the High Life on Corporate Donors' Dime
Golf outings at an exclusive country club. A catered suite at a Dallas Cowboys game. Swanky ski resort getaways in the mountains of Utah. Life is good for Congressman Pete Sessions.
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A new report released this week by Issue One and the Campaign Legal Center, campaign-finance reform groups based in Washington, D.C., explores how leadership PACs — special pots of money meant to help other politicians and build influence — have become lawmakers’ “preferred ticket to luxurious living.”
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“The way you raise funds is to make donors feel comfortable and give them an experience, which is fine, but the problem is that a comparably small percentage of the funds raised for leadership PACs are going to other candidates,” said Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform for the Campaign Legal Center. “It gives the appearance that you’re holding fundraisers at a high-end steakhouse to bankroll the fundraiser you’re holding at a Cowboys game.”