Almost $55,000 at BLT Steakhouse; $17,000 at Lincoln; $13,000 at Johnny’s Half Shell.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor‘s (R-Va.) leadership PAC, Every Republican is Crucial, has been spending freely in many restaurants, running up a total tab of more than $170,000 in the 2014 election cycle alone, according to an OpenSecrets.org analysis. That’s nearly 12 percent of the PAC’s total nonpolitical expenditures and a good bit more — both in dollars and as a share of nonpolitical outlays — than what’s being spent by other high-ranking House members.

The payments from ERIC PAC to restaurants are large even in comparison to outlays by the PACs of other members of the House leadership. House Speaker John Boehner‘s (R-Ohio) Freedom Project PAC has spent about $49,000 on restaurants, less than a third of ERIC PAC’s total. Across the aisle, the leadership PACs of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the two top-ranking Democrats in the House, reported spending about $7,500 and $17,800, respectively, at dining establishments.

Leadership PACs have become so common that, according to a July 2013 National Journal analysis, 96 percent of senators and roughly two-thirds of House members have them; they no longer have much to do with “leadership.”

And while their original purpose was to collect money a lawmaker could dole out to colleagues and candidates to build loyalty, the funds can also be used to pay for trips and meals that aren’t campaign-related. Often the money is spent putting on fundraisers.

Cantor’s PAC is a big spender overall, ranking as the highest-spending leadership PAC in the House since 2010; it laid out $5.4 million in 2012. So far in the 2014 cycle, it’s maintaining its position at the head of the pack, having shelled out $3.1 million already, more than double the outlays of the No. 2, Boehner’s Freedom Project.

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Cantor’s office didn’t return requests for comment, but Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center, said expensive fundraisers and trips can help candidates like Cantor get on the good side of wealthy donors.

“Representatives use these types of events to attract donors and to advance their own political agendas as well as to enjoy a more upscale lifestyle financed by the donors to their leadership PAC,” McGehee said. “These fundraisers provide opportunities to rub elbows with the donors and bundlers who can provide large sums of funding for future elections.”

Cantor’s leadership PAC isn’t alone in its extensive spending. Most notably, Hoyer’s AmeriPAC: The Fund For a Greater America racked up about $83,000 in expenses last year when the congressman took a fundraising trip to the five-star Dorado Beach Hotel & Resort in Puerto Rico. Leadership PACs don’t just spend their money on fundraisers and food, though. In the 2012 election cycle, they poured more than $46 million into the campaigns of federal candidates. So far in this cycle, it’s a little more than $14 million, with ERIC PAC, Freedom Project, AmeriPAC and Majority Committee PAC (affiliated with House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California), in that order, leading the way.

CRP Researcher Andrew Mayersohn contributed to this post. Follow Robbie on Twitter at @robbiefeinberg Image: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (D-Va.) speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference in December 2013 (Flickr/FasterCures)



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