The daughter of Rep. Maxine Waters, who could be the next Chair of the Financial Services Committee, will collect more than $200,000 from her mother’s campaign for leading a lucrative if highly-controversial slate mailer operation, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The Washington Free Beacon’s Joe Schoffstall reports:
Karen Waters has pulled in hefty payments from the campaign to run a slate mailer operation after the FEC issued an advisory opinion in October 2004 allowing Waters to run the operation from the Citizens for Waters, her mother’s campaign committee. Prior to 2006, Karen ran the arrangement through LA Vote, a state committee in California.
Karen is in charge of slate mailers, or endorsement mailers, in which candidates pay Rep. Waters’s campaign to appear on mailers that are sent to more than 200,000 residents in the South Central Los Angeles area, where Waters holds a good amount of clout. The mailers contain a sample ballot and quotes of support from Waters.
As of the end of the 2016 election cycle, Karen and her firm Progressive Connections had been paid more than $600,000 in campaign funds from the committee for the running the slate mailers since 2006, the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.
Karen received another $108,862 in payments from her mother’s campaign committee during the 2018 election cycle, FEC filings show. The committee additionally reported that it still owes $94,000 to Karen. Once the debt is paid off, Karen will have received more than $200,000 in payments from the committee as marked at the end of the midterm cycle.
Slate mailers have become fairly common in blue states like California, but the practice has fallen under increasing scrutiny.
Additionally, Waters appears to be the only federal level politician running such an operation from their campaign committee.
AAN Staff
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