Recent events have shown that to some lawmakers, politics is a family business.
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) awarded thousands of dollars in scholarships to her relatives and an aide's children from Congressional Black Caucus Foundation funds, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News.
Not only did the scholarships violate the foundation's anti-nepotism rules, they all also broke foundation rules requiring scholarship recipients to live or study in a caucus member's district. Johnson originally denied any wrongdoing when first contacted by the paper, but a few days later issued a statement to acknowledge the rules violations, although she said she did so unknowingly.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has also had family connections come to light recently, although Waters has avoided violating the letter of any nepotism statues.
Waters' chief of staff, Mikael Moore, happens to also be her grandson. Although federal law and House rules prohibit members from hiring most members of their family, grandchildren are not covered by the law.
The Los Angeles Times ran a piece on Moore earlier this month, highlighting the connection after Waters became the subject of an unrelated ethics investigation. The congresswoman is accused of using her influence to help a bank in which her husband was a shareholder.
This isn't the first time Waters' family connections have raised eyebrows. In 2004, an L.A. Times article detailed ways Waters' family members had made more than $1 million in the previous eight years through dealings with companies that had been helped by the congresswoman.
Family connections also featured in the Justice Department's recently-dropped investigation of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) surrounding the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Among other allegations, the probe looked at financial ties between a former DeLay staffer turned lobbyist with connections to Abramoff, Edwin A. Buckham, and DeLay's wife, Christine. Buckham's lobbying firm hired and set up a retirement account for Christine DeLay, and Buckham also controlled a political action committee which hired DeLay's wife and daughter. The arrangements were part of larger allegations that DeLay had accepted gifts in return for political favors.
Of course, those are just the members of Congress who made news in the past week for using their positions to help family members. Dozens of others have been accused of similar charges in recent years.
