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California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters paid her daughter another $24,000 in campaign cash during the most recent quarter.
“Karen Waters, who has been organizing slate-mailing operations to bolster her mother’s re-election for nearly two decades, and her company, Progressive Connections, have received more than $1.2 million since 2003 for campaign services, including ‘slate mailer management’ fees and ‘campaign managing services,'” Fox News reported.
“A Citizens for Waters campaign committee filing from earlier this week shows that the younger Waters received $24,000 from the committee between January and March 2022. Slate-mailing is an uncommon practice in federal elections, where a consulting firm is hired to create a pamphlet of sorts that contains a list of candidates or policy measures and advises voters on how to cast their ballots,” the report added.
“Rep. Waters was reportedly the only federal politician to use a slate-mailer operation during the 2020 general election,” the Fox News report continued. “While it’s legal for federal lawmakers to employ family members on campaigns, the practice is generally frowned upon by ethics experts.”
Last year it was reported that Waters had funneled more than $1 million from her various campaigns to her daughter Karen Waters, Fox News reported.
Karen Waters received over $1.1 million for her services with her mother’s campaigns — $250,000 of which came from the most recent election cycle, reported the Federal Election Commission.
The daughter of the California Democrat organized slate-mailing operations to bolster her mother’s re-election.
Slate-mailing is an uncommon practice in federal elections, where a consulting firm is hired to create a pamphlet of sorts that contains a list of candidates or policy measures and advises voters how to cast their ballots.
Rep. Waters was reportedly the only federal politician to use a slate-mailer operation during the 2020 general election.
Though the practice is not altogether that uncommon in the state of California, which has seen politicians like Gov. Gavin Newsom use the campaigning method. Vice President Kamala Harris also used slate mailers during her 2017 Senate campaign.
But for Waters, it is all in the family as it is not only her daughter Karen who has cashed in on the gravy train.
A report in 2004 by The Los Angeles Times showed that various members of the Waters family were paid more than $1 million in the eight years prior to that story being written, and that was more than 16 years ago.
“Waters’ husband has collected fees for opening doors with his wife’s political allies on behalf of a bond firm seeking government business,” The Times reported.
“Son Edward Waters has shared in the slate mailer proceeds and has occasionally worked as a consultant to campaigns his mother supported,” it said.
“They do their business and I do mine,” Waters, who was 66 at the time, said. “We are not bad people.”
No, not bad people, but according to The Times, they are people who were part of a growing trend of family members of top politicians getting paid big bucks due to their family connections.
During her latest campaign, in which there was near no chance that she would not win in a landslide, the octogenarian paid her daughter Karen over 30 times, mostly related to Slate Mailer Management Fees, The FEC noted.
