House: July 2009 Archives

FEC to Congressional Candidates: Clothe Thyself

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Since 1983, long-bearded Texas rockers ZZ Top have been singing that "every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man."

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is singing a different tune: If you want to be a sharp-dressed candidate, you better pay for the threads yourself.

The FEC, in a ruling Thursday, determined that four congressional candidates "appear to have violated" a federal election rule barring the use of campaign funds to purchase clothing. But because all of the candidates had reimbursed their campaign treasuries for the expenditures, the cases were closed without further action taken.

The ruling came in response to a complaint filed last December by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a political watchdog group.

Think Congress Can't Count? Meet Rep.-Elect Chu

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Judy Chu, the California Democrat who won a House seat in a Los Angeles-area special election Tuesday, has had a long and varied career in local and state politics.

But she also has an undergraduate degree in mathematics, earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and taught psychology at the community college level for 20 years.

Hmmm..... a psychologist who also knows how to add AND subtract.