Republican Representative Lauren Boebert managed to get $ 22,000 refunds for the gas mileage she used during her campaign for Congress in 2020, raising questions from ethics experts.
The Colorado GOP lawmaker issued two checks totaling $ 22,259 from her campaign mileage accounts between January and mid-November. The latter is $ 21,199, after receiving refund in March 2020, according to reports from The Denver Post and the local Colorado Pols blog.
Their huge repayments can also be seen in campaign finance data on the OpenSecrets website.
According The Denver Post, to justify a refund of such a large amount, the distance traveled by Boebert during the campaign should be about 38,712 miles.
However, since her repayments were made in two installments, after the modest $ 1,060 at the end of March 2020, to justify her second $ 21,200 repayment from April 1 to November 3, she would have to drive 36,870 miles in just over seven months.
The number is extraordinarily high also bearing in mind that Ms. Boebert had no events publicly announced in April or July, and only in May, The Denver Post noticed.
“This highly unusual amount of miles spent raises red flags and the campaign should feel compelled to provide answers,” said Kedric Payne, a former investigator at the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent body in Congress that examines allegations of misconduct.
Candidates for federal positions can legally reimburse for miles driven in personal vehicles using the Federal Revenue’s mileage rate, which was 57.5 cents per mile in 2020.
Colorado Pols also noted that Ms. Boebert was “refunded” for a total of $ 30,177 in 2020, far more than outgoing representative Scott Tipton, whom she defeated. Over the past 10 years, Tipton’s refunds have totaled $ 12,255 from his campaign.