Today the Daily Beast outlines findings from the latest FEC filings for Kyrsten Sinema’s campaign and leadership PAC. Despite her fundraising slowing down, she still had plenty to cover the luxury hotels, private jets, fancy dinners, international travel, and wine that she’s become accustomed to.
Of note, Sinema’s Leadership PAC, “Getting Stuff Done PAC” only disbursed a measly $25,000 to other candidates in all of 2023, despite spending a total of $1.7M. As one expert noted: “That’s why leadership PACs supposedly exist, which is to make contributions to other candidates. But she is not making contributions—it’s just like a vehicle for Sinema to hold a fundraiser at a five-star resort with corporate lobbyists, and use the proceeds to fund the next fundraiser at a five-star resort.”
Separately, Sinema’s also come under fire for her outlandish taxpayer-funded private jet usage.
Read more below:
Daily Beast: One Clue That Kyrsten Sinema Is Retiring: Her Weird Spending
Sam Brodey | February 1, 2024
Once upon a time, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) crusaded against politicians cashing in on perks of their office.
In 2018, as a U.S. House member and Senate candidate, Sinema co-wrote a bill seeking to crack down on lawmaker use of public funds for “first class air travel,” among other luxuries.
“Arizonans are sick and tired of seeing Washington bureaucrats use their hard-earned tax dollars for personal gain,” Sinema said in a constituent email from July 2018, citing “private luxury travel” specifically. […]
But if Sinema pushes the envelope on her use of public funds, her latest campaign finance filings reveal her comfort with spending donor money on just about any perk under the sun—stays at five-star European hotels, luxury vehicles, first-class airfare, and splurges at plush West Coast vineyards.
On top of all of that, Sinema’s personal security expenses carry a staggering burn rate of more than $100,000 a month, most of it to one person—Tulsi Gabbard’s sister.
According to Federal Election Commission filings made public this week, for instance, Sinema’s personal political action committee—the “Getting Stuff Done PAC”—spent over $5,800 on first-class airfare for the senator in the second half of 2023.
Unusually, the PAC paid nearly $4,000 in airfare in August not to an airline, but to the big tobacco conglomerate Altria. It also paid $1,800 in airfare to FedEx Corporation Travel. Both expenses note they were used for “first-class airfare at fair market value.” […]
Beyond the private airfare, the PAC also underwrote the Arizona senator’s stays in July and October 2023 at the five-star Le Roch Hotel & Spa in Paris, for a total of $7,600, and paid the tab for her $2,500 stay in July at the Edition Hotel in Madrid, billed as a “luxury lifestyle urban five-star resort.”
The PAC also poured out around $6,000 to half a dozen wineries in California and Oregon, including about $520 to Three Sticks Wines, the Sonoma County vineyard where Sinema earned $1,170.40 as a summer intern in 2020.
Sinema’s campaign, meanwhile, shelled out nearly $2,000 in November 2023 to Corporate Paris, a high-end car service based in Paris which operates internationally; it also paid $434 in October for a ticket on the Eurostar high-speed rail line, best known for shuttling passengers between London and Paris. […]
More so than her spending on luxury travel, Sinema’s outlays for personal security have been truly mind-boggling—an average of more than $100,000 a month. […]
Sinema’s extravagance is all the more remarkable considering how tight her other political spending has been. But those costs may more closely reflect her personal financial life—her annual disclosures don’t list any interest-bearing bank accounts, despite the extra $24,000 she earns annually from her teaching gig at Arizona State University. Those forms only show two retirement accounts, both valued between $15,000 and $50,000 in her most recent filing. […]
In 2023, Sinema’s Getting Stuff Done PAC raised $1.1 million, but spent $1.7 million. Leadership PACs are generally for spreading cash around to allied politicians, party organizations, or other political causes.
But in all of 2023, Sinema’s PAC only spent $25,000 to support other candidates—$10,000 each for Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT), and $5,000 to Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM).
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