Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) has canceled a fundraiser after questions were raised about her promise of special access to donors.
The conservative lawmaker sent out an email last week inviting potential donors to “serve as a member of my advisory group by attending my April 27 dinner,” and making a $2,500 contribution. It continued: “When the GOP regain[s] the majority, I would turn to you for advice on pertinent issues affecting our nation.”
Ros-Lehtinen is the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs committee, and would chair the committee if the GOP re-takes the House this fall.
The apparent linking of access to contributions violates a House ethics guideline, though it doesn’t appear to be illegal.
Still, after Roll Call wrote about the invitations, Ros-Lehtinen’s office announced that the event had been axed “due to a misunderstanding and to avoid the appearance of impropriety.”
A staffer for one good-government told the Miami Herald that the invitation “on the blatancy scale, was about as bad as I’ve ever heard.”
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