The trips have become a headache for Landrieu, who faces a tough midterm. Landrieu faces more travel questions

Vulnerable Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu is under renewed scrutiny for potentially violating campaign finance laws by tapping official Senate funds to cover the cost of fundraising trips.

A review of Landrieu’s office expenditures and campaign records reveals two trips from 2012 that may have been improperly billed to her Senate office rather than her reelection campaign.


On Aug. 23, 2012, Butler Aviation charged $6,787 for an in-state flight for Landrieu that included multiple stops. The flight was from New Orleans to Vidalia to Shreveport to Alexandria and back to New Orleans, according to official disbursement records Landrieu filed with the secretary of the Senate.

On Oct. 18, 2012, Butler Aviation charged $3,437 for a Landrieu flight from New Orleans to Opelousas to Patterson and back to New Orleans.

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Both trips included campaign-related events that raise questions about whether some or all of the costs of the charter flights should have been covered by Landrieu’s reelection campaign, rather than her official office.

The trips are becoming a serious headache for Landrieu, who is in the fight of her political life this year against Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). After other reports of improper travel spending, Louisiana Republicans are dubbing Landrieu “Air Mary” to portray her as out of touch with voters after her lengthy Senate career.

The key will be determining whether the trips in question were mostly fundraising swings — not official travel. Landrieu has ordered her staff to look into the matter by the end of the month.

On the day of Landrieu’s Aug. 23, 2012 trip, Federal Election Commission records indicate the reelection campaign received an “in-kind donation” for catering and room rental in Shreveport and Bossier City, which is about two miles from Shreveport. Landrieu aides said the trip included a “meet and greet” for young professionals hosted by the campaign that was incidental to the official stops she attended that day.

Senate ethics rules would permit official funds to cover the entire cost of this trip if that’s the case. But if Landrieu sought any political support during the “meet-and-greet” event, it would become campaign-related and she would have had to use campaign funds to pay at least a portion of the overall cost of the trip. Senate rules require that campaign funds must be used to help defray the costs of a trip in which a senator mixed political and campaign events.

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On the same day as the Oct. 18, 2012 trip, local newspaper reports indicate that Landrieu spoke at a fundraiser held at the Petroleum Club in Morgan City, which is about seven miles from Patterson. Landrieu’s campaign did not respond to questions about this trip.

Landrieu is facing a barrage of bad press over this issue. USA Today reported in July that she spent $47,000 last year on in-state flights using her official Senate office to cover the cost.

Then CNN reported last week that Landrieu improperly used official funds to cover the $3,200 cost of a Nov. 8 fundraising trip to Lake Charles, Louisiana. President Barack Obama was in the Bayou State that day, but Landrieu chose to attend the previously scheduled fundraiser.

In the Lake Charles incident, Landrieu’s office said the vendor mistakenly billed the flight to her Senate office rather than the reelection campaign, and that the error had been uncovered by its own internal review. Friends of Mary Landrieu picked up the cost of the flight on Aug. 4, before the CNN report was aired.

Landrieu tried to downplay the issue, saying it was a minor mistake that had been immediately rectified.

However, Landrieu’s office was then forced to acknowledge that the Democratic senator would have to reimburse her Senate office for $5,721 to cover a second chartered flight from New Orleans to Shreveport to Dallas for a September 2013 fundraiser.

“She was traveling back to D.C. through Dallas, and a fundraiser in Dallas was added to her schedule,’’ Matthew Lehner, Landrieu’s communications director, said in a statement to the Shreveport Times. “Out of an abundance of caution, in case there was a cost allocation error connected to this flight, the Senate will be reimbursed for the flight.”

Landrieu has now ordered her staff to complete a review of all official travel she has taken during her three terms as a senator in an effort to limit the political damage by disclosing any improperly billed trips all at once.

“Sen. Landrieu has ordered that counsel review all payments made with official funds for her flights during her 18 years of service in the Senate,” said Lehner in a statement released on Friday. “The counsel will also review internal office procedures and make recommendations to ensure accurate payments are made in the future. The findings will be made public once the review is completed, which is expected to be before the Senate returns in September.”

Cassidy, though, is pouncing, arguing that Landrieu violated federal law.

“Senator Landrieu’s disregard and abuse of taxpayer money is unacceptable and, reportedly, illegal,” Cassidy said in a statement. “She should return all the taxpayer money she has spent on charter flights, open up her travel logs for further review to ensure there are not more violations, and apologize to American taxpayers immediately.”

Keep Louisiana Working, a conservative organization, has filed a complaint with the FEC over Landrieu’s use of official funds for campaign travel.

“Air Mary Landrieu seems to have no qualms spending taxpayer money to fly herself to campaign fundraisers,’’ said Jason Dore, executive director of the Louisiana Republican Party. “This is simply unacceptable. Even worse, Landrieu only admitted to these violations of campaign finance law after the media started sniffing around and asking questions.’’

Landrieu is not the first senator to face questions over mixing campaign and official funds. In March 2011, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) was forced to repay $88,000 to the Treasury Department for campaign trips that had been improperly billed to her Senate office following a POLITICO report on her use of a private plane she owned.

Even worse for McCaskill, her family then had to pay $287,000 in back taxes it owed on the plane. McCaskill’s husband, businessman Joe Shepard, eventually sold what the senator had come to call “the damn plane.”