Veteran California campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee "nearly wiped out" the $379,000 in Rep. Loretta Sanchez's campaign war chest, Politico's Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan report.
"What we've learned this week is that unfortunately, the amount in our reelect account is substantially less than the amount we've raised this year, as well as the amount reflected in the records sent to us by Durkee & Associates," Sanchez chief of staff Adrienne Elrod told Politico. "In fact, our account has been nearly wiped out."
Durkee was arrested by the FBI on Friday on mail fraud charges. The feds said she used campaign funds for her own personal purposes, including paying her mortgage; her mother's nursing home costs; and credit card charges for cosmetics and ice cream.
A major player in the California campaign finance world, Durkee had an extensive list of clients in California, according to the Secretary of State's office. On the federal level, Federal Election Commission records show she was treasurer for 161 various committees over the course of her career.
In other words, the go-to treasury person for LA Dems was a crooked as the shadow coming from a spool of barbed wire and was playing fast and loose with thousands, if not millions over the years. It's an ugly situation, but really I'm glad this happened now and not, say, this time next year.
We'll see how much total damage the embezzlement scheme causes, but there's going to be more than a few problems over the next couple months at least.
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