Advocacy Fund Paid Hotel Bills for Detroit’s Mayor

A nonprofit group created by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, of Detroit, paid his hotel bills while he was on fund-raising trips, reports The Detroit News. The mayor was criticized for letting the Kilpatrick Civic Fund pay $8,605.03 for two rooms he booked at the La Costa Resort and Spa, in California, in 2006, the newspaper says.

Mr. Kilpatrick defended his spending, saying: “I travel all over to raise money, and I’ve taken my wife along.” He says the nonprofit organization has paid his lodging bills “several times.”

The Civic Fund raises around $500,000 a year in donations, mostly through the mayor’s fund-raising efforts. Its mission is to support “voter education, social welfare, and community-improvement activities.”

Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, said nonprofit groups are increasingly used as a means to get around laws that restrict giving to political campaigns. He said, “You can give to the nonprofit and not worry about the limits.”