When House Speaker Glen Casada’s former chief of staff boasted to his boss in 2016 about having sex with a woman at Party Fowl, the food and drink purchases made at the local restaurant may have been paid for by campaign donors.

The finding comes amid a larger Tennessean review of spending by lawmakers, including Casada, who utilize political action committees. The review highlights a loophole in state law that allows lawmakers to create PACs and spend thousands of dollars on items they would normally be prohibited from purchasing using traditional campaign funds.

Among the purchases identified in The Tennessean’s review is a $180 expenditure at Party Fowl made by Casada’s political action committee in August 2016.

The date listed in the PAC’s disclosure came days after Casada’s now former chief of staff told Casada in a text message he had sex with a woman in the local restaurant.

Casada faces a growing number of resignation calls, as he reels from a scandal involving a series of racist and misogynistic text messages sent by his former chief of staff – including the exchange about sex in a bathroom at a Nashville restaurant.

Casada's PAC spent nearly $22,000 on food and beverages

According to campaign finance disclosures, Casada’s PAC reported spending $180 on food and beverages at Party Fowl in the Gulch on Aug. 18, 2016.

Copies of text messages obtained by The Tennessean show Casada and his now former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, discussing Party Fowl on Aug. 14, 2016.

“Just so y’all know, I did f--k (woman’s name) in the bathroom at party fowl,” Cothren said in a text message to others, including Casada. “Will send pictures later.” The Tennessean is not naming the woman.

Casada responded, “Only gone for 60 seconds, adding, “R u a minute man???;)”

Cothren said, “Yes, I take after you. Like father like son.”

Casada replied, “Lolol! If I’m happy, then all is good!!!!!”

The discrepancy in dates between the text messages and the campaign finance disclosure likely is due to a delay in banking as businesses process payments.

Overall, Casada’s PAC spent nearly $21,800 on food and beverages in the past two years. The total includes the Party Fowl purchase, in addition to nearly $6,400 in unitemized expenses — payments less than $100 — on food and beverages.

In total, the speaker made 50 purchases under $20 with PAC money.

Casada reported spending hundreds of dollars for what might be considered campaign-related events. In October, he reported several hundred-dollar expenditures at restaurants throughout the state, in the lead up to his bid to be the GOP nominee for speaker. He spent $180 at Texas de Brazil in Nashville and $256 at a restaurant in Chattanooga.

Casada’s PAC, which was first formed in 2006, has also not always spent a lot on food and beverages. From 2012 to 2016, Casada’s PAC spent the vast majority of its money on contributions to candidates. Since then, Casada’s PAC has increased the frequency of expenditures on food and beverages.

The speaker’s office did not return a request for comment about the political action committee’s overall spending on food and beverages first made in the closing days of the legislative session.

While the food and beverage expenditures are not illegal, they highlight a loophole in state law.

Tennessee lawmakers aren’t allowed to use their campaign donations to buy food and beverages for personal reasons.

But under state law, they can form a political action committee and spend thousands of dollars in donations with fewer limits and far less scrutiny – including on how they spend money on food.

In addition to Casada, The Tennessean found at least two other state lawmakers – Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and Sen. Brian Kelsey — who have used their political action committees to spend thousands of dollars on food and beverages.

Of the lawmakers with a PAC, McNally, Casada and Kelsey reported spending money in the last two years on purchases that might face scrutiny from state auditors if they were made with their regular campaign committee.

Today, at least 17 current state lawmakers have PACs, in addition to their regular campaign committees.

PACs are typically utilized by members of legislative leadership because they face fewer restrictions and limits on fundraising and spending than lawmakers’ individual campaign committees. They often use them to support other lawmakers in their elections. But rank-and-file lawmakers are also allowed to create PACs.

Sen. Brian Kelsey

According to his campaign finance disclosures, Kelsey, R-Germantown, spent at least $1,600 on food and beverages.

The purchases ranged from $20 lunches to a $358 expenditure for unknown food and beverages.

Kelsey, who has also used his PAC to pay for costs associated with attending conventions and lodging, reported spending hundreds of dollars on food and drinks while listing them as unitemized expenditures.

Campaign finance disclosures require lawmakers to provide additional detail about any payments over $100. Kelsey has frequently declined to do so, highlighting another discrepancy in reporting requirements.

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally

McNally, who became lieutenant governor in 2017, largely spends PAC money on food and beverages for expensive gatherings.

For example, on Nov. 9, he spent $584 at a ribs and barbecue restaurant in his district in Oak Ridge. Just days later, he bought a Thanksgiving meal for staffers from Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in Nashville. In December, McNally had a $493 expenditure at Morton’s steakhouse in Nashville.

In his disclosures, McNally regularly explains the expenses, including at the Hermitage Hotel and Jimmy Kelly’s steakhouse, as an “event expense.”

In the last two years, McNally has spent more than $51,000 with his PAC to businesses that serve food and beverages. The purchases ranged from $250 to $5,000.

None of McNally’s purchases identified in The Tennessean review would be prohibited if the Senate speaker made the purchases using his personal campaign account. Given that McNally’s expenditures aren’t small dollar amounts, they would be allowed if he had spent the money out of his regular campaign committee and not his PAC.

In a statement, a spokesman for McNally said, "The restaurant expenditures you see by McPAC are, in most cases, related to fundraising expenses and meals for staff."

The loophole

State campaign finance officials audited the campaign account of Rep. Harold Love Jr., and found the Nashville Democrat made 109 food and beverage purchases that each were less than $20.

The small-dollar transactions appear to indicate individual meal or snack purchases, the audit states, and if any of them were for the candidate, "they would appear to be personal in nature and therefore unallowable.”

But had Love made those same purchases from a political action committee, they would not have raised a red flag – even if they were for personal reasons.

That’s because state law is silent on how PACs, including ones controlled by lawmakers, can spend their money.

“In the campaign finance statutes, PAC expenditures are not subject to the prohibitions that candidate campaign fund expenditures are subject to,” said Drew Rawlins, executive director of the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance.

That effectively means lawmakers with PACs can spend their money on whatever they want and face no repercussions.

Lawmakers campaign committees, on the other hand, are explicitly prohibited from using their money on everything from funerals and clothing to school tuition and haircuts.

None of the 17 PACs controlled by state lawmakers examined by The Tennessean review found those type of expenditures.

Adam Kleinheider, McNally's spokesman, said in a statement, that while the lieutenant governor may not personally approve of every expenditure lawmakers make, he trusts his Senate colleagues to do the right thing with their campaign accounts and leadership PACs.

"If there are violations of the law, Lt. Gov. McNally would expect them to be held accountable," Kleinheider said.



"Ultimately, this is donor money, not taxpayer money. Campaign donations and expenditures are publicly disclosed. This allows the public to know what is being spent and the media to shine a spotlight on it. Donors who disapprove of these expenditures are armed with that knowledge and can refuse to continue donating as a result."

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Reach Joel Ebert at jebert@tennessean.com or 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29.