By Seth McLaughlin
The head of the Louisiana GOP filed a federal ethics complaint Wednesday against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, claiming the Nevada Democrat has misused taxpayer money for campaign purposes ahead of the 2014 midterm elections as part of his ongoing crusade against GOP mega-donors Charles and David Koch.
Roger Villere, chairman of the Republican Party of Louisiana, sent a letter to the heads of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics — Sens. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat, and Johnny Isakson, Georgia Republican — calling on the lawmakers to investigate whether Mr. Reid has engaged in “campaign activities using staff, equipment and facilities paid for with public funds.”
“Specifically, Senator Reid has violated Senate rules that prohibit Members of the Senate from using websites located on the Senate.gov host-domain for partisan political campaign purposes as well as the prohibitions regarding using official resources for political purposes,” Mr. Villere wrote. “Therefore, we respectful request that the Committee investigate Senator Reid’s misuse of taxpayer resources and sanction him appropriately.”
Mr. Villere highlighted an April 9 post titled “The Facts About the Koch Brothers” on Mr. Reid’s official Senate website that said, among other things, that the Koch brothers want to abolish Social Security, eliminate the minimum wage and dismantle Medicare as we know it.
Mr. Reid’s official Twitter account also blasted out a graphic “depicting tow men wearing suit jackets emblazoned with the Koch Industries Inc. logo stating, ‘Republican senators might as well were Koch insignias to denote their sponsorship.’”
“The campaign activities discussed above implicate numerous Senate runes and must be investigated,” Mr. Villere said. “If the investigation confirmed that these activities violate Senate Rules, Senator Reid must be held accountable.”
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