Tom Feeney Sells Access for an Entire Season:
Ever wanted to buy a season ticket pass to a sitting congressman. According to Roll Call, Rep. Tom Feeney is offering all-access for only five grand:
Last week, the campaign of Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) invited lobbyists to a Spring Break Bash at the American Legion Hall on Capitol Hill. The price of admission: $49 a person or $500 per political action committee. But for those wishing to dispense with all that messy check-writing for the entire year, how about buying a “season ticket pass” for a cool $5,000?
The invite says: “Get a Season Ticket Pass: $5,000 per calendar year gives you complimentary invitations to all Feeney for Congress events in that year.”
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About that $5,000 for a “calendar year,” though, keep in mind that individual contributors can give candidates only $2,100 per election for each two-year election cycle (that is, a total of $4,200 for the primary and general election). PACs are permitted to give a total of $10,000 per election cycle.
Individuals can give $5,000 a year to leadership PACs. Feeney has one called Federalist PAC, but the invitation specifically asks donors to write checks to “Feeney for Congress.”
But Roe said the $5,000 refers to PACs. He added that the April 6 Spring Break Bash — which will feature music from the band Blame It On Jane, whose lead singer is pharmaceutical lobbyist Jane Adams — is a “laid-back” event the campaign does every year to highlight “the fact that Feeney has one of the nation’s premiere spring break destinations in his district, Daytona Beach.”
The article leaves it a bit unclear as to whether Feeney is violating campaign laws by instructing season ticket holders to make out $5,000 checks to his campaign committee rather than his PAC. One thing that is clear: I would be happy to die never having heard a band fronted by a pharmaceutical industry lobbyist.