California Democrat, Maxine Waters, has funneled more than $1 million to her daughter through her campaigns since 2003. This information is according to federal election data.
Karen Waters, Representative Waters’ daughter, was paid for her services with her mother’s campaign funds. The most recent election cycle yielded roughly $250,000, bringing her total to over $1.1 million dollars worth of services.
The younger Waters routinely organized mass mailers for her mother’s campaign. These slate mailings are uncommon in federal elections.
Typically, a consulting firm is hired to create pamphlets or glossy cards that contain a list of candidates and policy members. These slate mailers advise voters how to cast their ballots during local elections.
Representative Waters was reportedly the only federal politician to use a slate-mailer operation during the 2020 general election, Fox News reported.
A report in 2004 by The Los Angeles Times showed that various members of the Waters family were paid more than $1 million in the eight years prior to that story being written, and that was more than 16 years ago.
“Waters’ husband has collected fees for opening doors with his wife’s political allies on behalf of a bond firm seeking government business,” The Times reported.
“Son Edward Waters has shared in the slate mailer proceeds and has occasionally worked as a consultant to campaigns his mother supported,” it said.
“They do their business and I do mine,” Waters, who was 66 at the time, said. “We are not bad people.”
Waters is not alone in ensuring her family receives a large payday. The Times reported the Waters family was just one of a growing trend among top politicians enriching their families through campaign funding.
Before her November elections, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar paid in excess of $1.7 million to E Street Group, a consulting firm that is owned by Omar’s current husband, Tim Mynett.
According to public reports, a complaint filed against Rep. Omar by the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) in August 2019 complained of Mynett’s travel expenses paid for by the campaign.
Mynett’s former wife, Beth, stated in a filing during their divorce that travel dates appeared to line up with trips he was taking to continue his affair with the also married representative.
She said his “more recent travel and long work hours now appear to be more related to his affair with Rep. Omar than with his actual work commitments.”
These concerns and greased palms are coming to light as the Biden administration’s lawyers have needed to reach out multiple times to family members of the President and Vice President. Multiple family members are part of ongoing investigations to determine if they profited off the name, likeness, and position of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
