The race to replace retiring US Senator Wayne Allard is heating up. With Congressional approval ratings near or below the 20 percent mark, Mark Udall has an opportunity to take a leadership role in cleaning up Washington. However, when it comes to Udall-donor and tax-evader Charles Rangel, Mark Udall will not return funds or call for Rangel's ouster as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Congressman Mark Udall on Thursday rebuffed a call from Bob Schaffer, his Republican opponent in the U.S. Senate race, to return campaign donations he has received from a congressman who is coming under increasing scrutiny.
Rep. Charles Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has admitted he failed to report $75,000 of rental income from a Dominican villa on tax returns and financial disclosure reports since 1988. The House ethics committee is reviewing the matter, and Republicans tried unsuccessfully Thursday to get the New York Democrat to give up his chairmanship while he is under investigation.
Udall, an Eldorado Springs [ Boulder County Liberal ] Democrat, received $10,000 of campaign contributions from [ Charles ] Rangel's leadership political action committee this year and $2,000 in 2000. He, like most other members of his party, voted against ordering [ Charles ] Rangel to give up his seat.
The scary part is that Charles Rangel, as Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, is de facto in charge of the tax code in the House. For Rangel to "miss" these taxes calls into question his fitness as a Chairman.
Mark Udall's judgment is suspect as well, since he did not vote to remove him as chair of the committee. However, politics is a dirty business, and the campaign is under no obligations to return funds, no matter how scandalous the donor.
by Civil Sense
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