Marco Rubio haunted by allegations over Florida 'slush fund' and spending

[Judi Lynn]

Marco Rubio haunted by allegations over Florida 'slush fund' and spending

As speaker of state House of Representatives, 2016 White House hopeful was accused of using conservative action committee dollars for private expenditure

Richard Luscombe in Miami
@richlusc
Sunday 7 June 2015 07.00 EDT

It is an episode that Marco Rubio had hoped was long forgotten – a federal investigation and top-to-toe examination of the Florida GOP’s financial trickery at the end of the last decade that saw the state’s party chairman jailed for grand theft and money laundering and another senior Republican facing corruption charges.

Rubio, who was speaker of the Florida House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009, emerged unscathed as agents from the US attorney’s office, Internal Revenue Service, FBI and the Florida department of law enforcement examined a number of senior party figures.

But now that he is running for president, and enjoying a popularity surge that placed him top of the crowded field of Republican White House hopefuls in last week’s CNN/ORC poll, questions over Rubio’s fiscal propriety appear to be coming back to haunt his campaign. Opponents will seize on his misuse of a party-issued credit card, and separate accusations that he treated hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to two conservative action committees he established before he became speaker as a personal slush fund.

“There’s no other way of putting it than saying he raised money to travel and to go for fine-dining meals when the purpose of those committees was to help elect candidates running for public office,” said Christian Ulvert, a senior Democratic adviser who was the opposition party’s communications chief in Florida when Rubio was speaker.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/06/marco-rubio-campaign-funds