TRENTON — A three-night stay at a five-star hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland, for a wedding: $7,725.

A set of china from Bloomingdale’s for the bride and groom: $463.

Cab rides, meals, tips and airline baggage fees: $953.

Expensing it to your campaign account: Priceless.

In June, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1st Dist.) and his family visited Edinburgh for a wedding — part of a larger European vacation. There, Andrews, his wife and two teenage daughters stayed at the Balmoral Hotel in the center of town, which bills itself as a "luxury hotel in the true sense of the word." The price was indeed five-star: Two rooms for three nights cost $7,725.

Nor did they go to Scotland empty-handed. The family bought a $463 china set from Bloomingdale’s as a gift to the newlyweds.

In all, Andrews and his family spent more than $9,000 on the Edinburgh leg of the trip. Rather, his congressional campaign did.

The hotel, wedding gift, and several hundred more dollars for ground transportation, meals and petty cash came not from the family's pockets, but from Andrews' campaign fund, according to a Star-Ledger review of his campaign-finance-reports.

Andrews said the expense was legitimate because the wedding was for a donor

and volunteer adviser, allowing him to consider it a political event. Citing privacy concerns, he declined to identify the adviser, who he said helps his campaign with opposition research.

"We have legal advice, and before we make any expenditure like that we listen to legal advice," said Andrews, pointing out that the rest of the European vacation, including airfare, was paid for with family funds. "We’re convinced this is an appropriate expenditure to thank and support someone who has given us a lot of time and effort."

But the Edinburgh trip is just one of many instances in which the South Jersey congressman — who together with his wife earned more than $500,000 in 2010 — mixed personal and political expenses in an unorthodox way.

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Also in June, Andrews’ campaign spent more than $10,000 on a party at his Haddon Heights home to celebrate his 20 years in Congress and his daughter’s high school graduation. And his campaign has made tens of thousands of dollars in donations to Philadelphia theaters — sometimes within months of another daughter appearing in one of their productions.

In 2009, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging that Andrews broke the law when he used campaign funds to buy almost $1,000 in clothing after an airline lost his luggage.

Andrews reimbursed his campaign for the purchase. The commission told his treasurer that although the congressman violated the rules, it was dismissing the complaint in part because "the alleged amount in violation was so low that it would not merit the further use of commission resources."

When asked about the Scotland trip, the executive director of CREW, Melanie Sloan, said: "It’s hard to figure how you can take your whole family to Scotland for a donor’s wedding and call that a legitimate campaign expense. It seems to me like the U.S. attorney in New Jersey might want to consider taking a look."

As she put it: "It’s not a personal piggy bank. When you donate to a member of Congress, it doesn’t mean it’s for them to spend at will."

How politicians spend campaign funds is not a cut-and-dried issue. A guide for candidates written by the Federal Election Commission says they cannot use their campaign funds "if the expense would exist even in the absence of the candidacy."

Andrews said the Scotland trip passed that test. "We wouldn’t have gone on the Scotland trip but for the fact that this person is an adviser and donor to us," he said.

A spokeswoman for the election commission declined to comment.



The party

In June, Andrews held a party at his home in Haddon Heights. Two invitations obtained by The Star-Ledger paint different pictures of the event. One, sent from the Andrews for Congress campaign account, bills it as a celebration both of his 20 years in the House and his daughter Jacqueline’s graduation from the Baldwin School, a prep school on Philadelphia’s Main Line.

A second invitation, which did not come from his campaign, calls it a "Graduation Celebration honoring Jacqueline" and makes no mention of Rob Andrews’ office, describing the event as "from elegant to carnival fun."

Andrews’ campaign account paid $10,000 for the party’s catering and other expenses. But the congressman’s chief of staff, Fran Tagmire said most guests were political associates and that Jacqueline’s guests only made up about 10 percent of the party. The family, Tagmire said, paid $6,000 out of pocket.

"The family wrote a check to the caterer which far exceeded 10 percent of the caterer’s cost even though Jacquelyn’s guest list was fewer than 10 percent of the guests," he said.

Although Tagmire said the family kept separate political and personal guest lists for the party, he would not provide copies to the Star-Ledger, even redacted, to "protect the privacy of our guests."

That 10 percent figure also came up when The Star-Ledger first noticed the trip to Edinburgh.

When asked about a $2,600 petty cash expense for Edinburgh that appeared on Andrews’ second-quarter finance report, Tagmire said it was part of a larger trip to Europe and that "family payments were approximately 10 times the amount of the expenditures for the political part of the trip."

But when the next quarter’s report was released and showed the previously undisclosed Edinburgh hotel bill of $7,725, Tagmire amended his statement. "We are not certain of exactly how much the personal expenses on the trip added up to, but we are certain that these expenses far exceeded the campaign expenditures," he said. (Andrews said he only used about $300 of the petty cash he originally took out.)

Andrews' campaign expenses also sometimes appear closely related to the fledgling career of his daughter Josie, an aspiring actress and pop singer.



Theater donation

In February, Andrews’ campaign made a $12,500 donation for the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia for its gala. Andrews’ wife Camille sits on the board of trustees, and Josie is listed on the theater’s website as a performer in the gala, which was held in May. Andrews even expensed $15 for parking there to his campaign account. "We brought guests with us as campaign donors," he said.

There are several more examples of Andrews donating thousands to theaters within months of his daughter performing a role in one of their productions, but he resented the implication that his campaign’s largesse had anything to do with his daughter’s roles.

"It’s not fair to her. It’s not true," Andrews said. "The Walnut Street Theater for a long time has carried out sort of an arts outreach program for kids in the Philadelphia and Camden areas. I’ve been a longtime supporter of them for that purpose, and my daughter’s activities are totally independent."

Trips to California

Andrews also frequently visits California, as well as other states, where he holds fundraising events. According to her biography on the Internet Movie Database, Josie also flies frequently between the East Coast and Los Angeles, "pursuing her dream of becoming a pop star and actress."

Andrews said he sometimes brings his daughter on those visits when they coincide with auditions and other activities related to her show business career. But he only pays for her airfare and lodging if she’s helping with fundraising, Andrews said.

"She has come with me on trips to California to do some of her business, but she’s always part of my business as well," he said.

Andrews sits in one of the state’s safest Democratic districts, which includes parts of Camden, Gloucester and Burlington counties, allowing him win re-election by large margins. He has run for statewide office twice — for governor in 1997 and the U.S. Senate in 2008 — but he has never made it past the primaries. His name still is frequently mentioned as a potential candidate.

"I don’t have any plans to run for anything, but if the circumstances came along I’d have to consider it," he said.

But while Andrews spends little on campaign advertising, he often raises hundreds of thousands of dollars per quarter and spends almost as much.

Each quarter, Andrews says, he spends thousands of dollars for such gifts as fudge, flowers and gift cards for campaign volunteers.

Andrews said he needs to raise the money and give out gifts to campaign volunteers in case an independent group runs millions of dollars in television ads against him. He also noted that he donates to the Democratic Party and other candidates.

"That means you always have to be ready to protect your position in a campaign," he said. "One of the ways you do that is through money. The other is for volunteers. And we believe in saying thank you."