The news of House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy's decision to withdraw his name from the Speaker of the House elections has eclipsed many other notable events this week including the American Democracy Legal Fund (ADLF) filing a complaint against 23 Republican Representatives with the Office of Congressional Ethics. Interestingly, the ADLF calls out PA District 6 Representative Ryan Costello specifically. Perhaps he will blame his Freshman status for signing this contract, as he has for other gaffes including accidentally blabbing to the press about McCarthy's decision yesterday:
The October 7, 2015 ADLF letter begins:
Dear Chairman Skaggs:
This letter constitutes a complaint against United States Representatives Stephen Knight, Barbara Comstock, Rodney Davis, Jeff Denham, Dan Benishek, Tim Walberg, Martha McSally, David Valadao, Mike Coffman, Carlos Curbelo, David Young, Bob Dold, Mike Bost, Bruce Poliquin, Frank Guinta, Cresent Hardy, Lee Zeldin, John Katko, Will Hurd, Ryan Costello, Elise Stefanik, Daniel Donovan and Mike Bishop, (the “Members”) pursuant to Rule 3(A) of the Office of Congressional Ethics Rules for the Conduct of Investigations. It has come to my attention that the Members have violated 31 U.S.C. § 1301 and House rules prohibiting official resources from being used for campaign or political purposes.
The basic point is the aforementioned Representatives according to the ADLF allegedly violated Federal Law by signing a document entitled "Patriot Program Contract 2015". This so-called contract appears to bind its "Members" to use official, taxpayer funded resources for campaign purposes and follow the NRCC's detailed instructions (including raising a minimum of $100,000 for the NRCC in 2015) in exchange for access to a Scrooge-McDuck-Swimming-In-It pool of campaign money and extra support from the NRCC during re-election years.
It will be interesting to see the action (or inaction) taken to investigate these allegations. What other gaffes both serious and trivial can we count on Rep Costello for during his first year in Congress? Whether Rep Costello realizes it or not, there are some PA District 6 voters who are paying attention and will take this episode into consideration during the 2016 Election cycle.