Dan Maffei Refuses to Return Rangel Cash, Too Busy Fundraising to Meet Constituents

Cross posted from The Lonely Conservative



I haven't heard anything about Dan Maffei having a town hall meeting in the Syracuse area this summer. I guess he doesn't want to get caught on tape wagging his finger at constituents again. That sort of thing doesn't play well in an election year. Plus, he's too busy fund raising.

Syracuse.com: More than three months before the election, Maffei is about to shatter his own record for the most money ever raised by a candidate for a Syracuse-area congressional seat.

Maffei, D-DeWitt, raked in more than $2.2 million by June 30, opening up a lopsided advantage over Republican Ann Marie Buerkle, who raised $245,000 since announcing her candidacy, new Federal Election Commission disclosure reports show.

At this rate, Maffei will easily surpass the $2.4 million he raised for the 2008 campaign, in which he won an open seat formerly held by Republican James Walsh.

Despite his status as a freshman member of Congress, Maffei continues to show that he is one of Capitol Hill’s most successful fundraisers. He ranks 34th out of 435 House members and his $2.2 million total is more than twice the average ($1.08 million) of his colleagues, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group in Washington, D.C., that tracks money in politics.

Wow! That's a lot of money. I bet most of it isn't coming from the folks in his district. Oh, and he refuses to return any of the money raised for him by the ethically challenged Charlie Rangel.

NY GOP: Despite the ethics committee revealing for the first time its charges against Charlie Rangel, Dan Maffei and Michael McMahon still refuse to give back the tainted campaign cash they’ve received from the embattled congressman. While dozens of their colleagues distance themselves from Rangel by returning his donations, Maffei and McMahon continue to look the other way when it comes to their party’s ethics problems in Washington. Their refusal to return this cash – totaling more than $150,000 -- proves that they’ll always put their own interests ahead of principle.

What do we expect? Ann Marie Buerkle has been traveling from town to town throughout the 25th congressional district, meeting the people she would like to represent. Maffei's going to need all the money he can get, tainted or not. But still, with his huge campaign treasure chest and full time paid staff, Buerkle also needs a little help. You can help Ann Marie Buerkle close that funding gap by donating to her campaign.