Jim DeMint

As you’ve probably heard, Jim DeMint, the Republican senator from South Carolina is retiring after two senate terms, or 12 years. Rather than focus on what he has or hasn’t done, representing South Carolina, I tend to focus on the question why would he quit? After all, being a U.S. Senator is a powerful position, and does pay a good income of $174,000 a year plus lots of perks.

So why? It’s almost certainly about money, as he’ll probably be making over $1 million in his new job, plus his nice congressional pension, plus, plus, plus.

Read this. It appears to be the repetitive story of our Washington politicians leveraging being in Congress for personal gain. While I admire DeMint’s conservative principles, he started the process by winning two terms as a U.S. Representative, then hopped over to the U.S. Senate for two terms and now to running The Heritage Foundation when he quits.

I have no problem about him making lots of money; it’s the American way but I do have a problem with the public believing that people elected to Congress are working for them and not for special interests or just to line up the next job. This may be an example of personal ambition trumping the public good.

I looked at the FEC website, that tracks congressional committees, how much money they have and how they spend it and found this. The FEC uses the flawed legislation by John McCain and Russ Feingold, the 2002 campaign “reform” legislation designed to tighten campaign rules, but left huge holes for the politicians to sneak through.

The latest filings that I found show that he has a substantial amount of cash in his Team DeMint committee bank account. The FEC allows a campaign committee to “dispose” of the money in many ways, as long as not for personal gain. I think that most sit on it after retirement and dole it out to other politicians, without restriction, to buy influence.

My question is will he give it to charity or another worthy cause (hopefully not The Heritage Foundation, a charity), or will he sit on it so he can use it to continue to legally shape South Carolina politics? If he does give it to The Heritage Foundation, he’d better get clearance from the FEC to make sure that they don’t disapprove.

The specific FEC wording is –

Charitable Donations
Gifts to charity are not considered personal use expenses as long as the candidate does not receive compensation from the charitable organiza-tion before it has expended the entire amount donated. Note that the amount donated must have been used for purposes that do not person-ally benefit the candidate. 113.1(g)(2). See also AOs 2005-06, 1997-01, 1996-40 and 1994-20

I say, get rid of them after eight years (twelve for senators). If they don’t go, they lose their pensions. Out with the old, in with the new.