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Landrieu’s Report on Campaign Flights Disappears From Website

Landrieu / AP
November 18, 2014

Democratic incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (La.) report on spending taxpayer dollars on campaign flights has been removed from her website and is no longer available online.

Landrieu released the internal review in September after coming under fire for charging taxpayers $3,200 for a charter flight to attend a fundraiser last November. The report found that she improperly billed her Senate office $33,727.02 for 43 campaign trips since 2002.

Landrieu blamed the errors on "sloppy bookkeeping." The review is no longer available on her campaign website, as both links to the report and spreadsheet of flights now redirect to Landrieu’s campaign home page.

Searches of both Landrieu’s Senate and campaign websites also come up empty for the report.

Landrieu, who is facing an uphill battle to reelection in her runoff against Rep. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) on Dec. 6, spent $47,000 on charter flights alone last year to fly around her home state.

Cassidy hit Landrieu hard on the charter flight controversy at the time, and introduced a resolution that would require members of Congress to report all charter flights to the Ethics committee within 30 days.

"Taking charter planes unnecessarily is a waste of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars," he said. "It makes no sense to fly on a $3,000 private jet if you can get to the same location in a few hours’ drive time and a $50 tank of gas. Washington’s spending is out of control and this is one of the reasons why."

"Ensuring that Washington is transparent and tax dollars are spent wisely is a priority," Cassidy said.

Cassidy has a 16-point lead on Landrieu, according to an internal poll released last week.

Request for comment from the Landrieu campaign was not returned.