Top 10 Congressional Campaign Credit Card Chargers

[Ron Burgundy]

CQPolitics.com - Catering for Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia: $14,063. A fundraising event for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio during an Arizona PGA tournament: $5,500. Beverages from Georgetown Wine & Spirits for contributors to Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. of Illinois: $1,186. Being able to charge expenses for your congressional campaign on a credit card: Priceless.

These are just a few examples of charges that turned up recently on the credit cards of congressional candidates this cycle. Of course, it's perfectly legal to use credit cards instead of writing checks. Credit cards are commonly used by presidential candidates and congressional candidates.

Though the money is paid to companies like American Express, Visa and MasterCard, each campaign still lists the vendors that received these funds in memo notations when they file their campaign disclosures.

The top 10 House candidates with the most campaign costs listed as "credit card" expenses:

- Rep. Eric Cantor , R-Va., $344,334

- Rep. Shelley Berkley , D-Nev., $340,615

- Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. , D-Ill., $313,477

- Rep. Joseph Crowley , D-N.Y., $310,604

- Rep. Robert E. Andrews , D-N.J., $313,477

- Rep. John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, $215,965

- Rep. Charles B. Rangel , D-N.Y., $178,991

- Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy , D-R.I., $175,780

- House candidate Terri Bonoff, D-Minn., $137,203

- Rep. Roy Blunt , R-Mo., $137,011

The Federal Election Commission requires all the expenditures to be listed by each campaign if they exceed the threshold of $200.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20080702/pl_cq_politics/politics2910526 [link]