Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) continues to pay tens of thousands of dollars from her campaign's coffers to her daughter for running a slate mailer operation while other debts remain untouched, filings show.
Waters's campaign committee disbursed $56,000 to the congresswoman's daughter Karen during the third quarter, according to the committee's most recent filings. The committee's payment to Karen reduced some of the accrued debt owed to her for running a slate mailer, or endorsement mailer, operation for the campaign.
At the end of 2018, the campaign reported being $183,000 in the red to Karen. Since that time, it has steadily chipped away at the debt, bringing the amount currently owed down to $52,000. As Waters has continued to pay her daughter from her campaign's coffers, other committee debts have remained untouched.
The committee still maintains a debt of $300 for a security guard and $600 for a sound system at a Christmas party that first appeared on her post-general report from last year. Other debts, such as an American Airlines travel expense of $719.60, were racked up between April 1 and May 16, 2012, filings show. That debt still appears on Waters's most recent FEC filings. Various congressional FCU Visa card purchases totaling $3,506, which first appeared on her April 2008 quarterly report, remain unpaid.
Waters currently maintains nearly $100,000 in campaign debt, more than half of which is marked toward her daughter. The campaign has $600,000 cash on hand.
Karen Waters has for years run the slate mailer operation for the Waters campaign committee. The FEC allowed the operation in a 2004 advisory opinion. Prior to that opinion, Waters ran the slate mailer from a California state committee called LA Vote.
The mailer has ushered in plenty of cash for the campaign over the years.
Throughout the midterm election cycle, Waters's campaign made more than $400,000 from other Democratic politicians in California running for office. Prominent politicians, such as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.), have paid to be on the endorsement mailers in the past.
Waters's campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the continued payments.