More Than a Wife, She’s a Customer

When state Sen. Martha Escutia needed a consultant for her 2002 reelection campaign, she didn’t have to look beyond the breakfast table. Her husband, Leo Briones, willingly put together a brochure touting her track record and mailed it to 50,000 households.

Her campaign, using money donated by supporters, paid his political consulting firm $98,000. Altogether, Escutia’s cam- paigns have reported paying the firm, Centaur North Strategic Communications, $120,443 since its founding in 1995.

By law, candidates cannot pocket campaign contributions. But when they hire their spouses to help run their campaigns, candidates may benefit financially from money their contributors give them.

Briones said in an interview that he did the mailing for his wife as a “labor of love” and charged only what the brochure cost. But such practices raise eyebrows among advocates of stricter campaign finance laws.

As long as the services provided and fees paid are of fair market value, paying for a spouse’s political work with campaign funds is legal, said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles.

But he is critical of the practice, saying: “In a sense, the campaign money is going into the candidate’s pocket.”

Stern suggested that state law needed “to be examined and perhaps regulated.”

Federal election regulations permit candidates to employ family members in their campaigns. And a recent federal rule authorized candidates to draw a salary, in some circumstances, from their campaign accounts.