Congresswoman Trahan has faced campaign finance questions stemming from donations thought to be from her husband rather than herself. A candidate is allowed to use unlimited personal resources, but spouses are subject to the same limits as any other individual contributor. Yesterday she offered an explanation which basically comes down to she and her husband agreed to both individual and joint accounts and yes, they sometimes transferred money between accounts. Personally, I think this is much ado about not very much and married couples share resources all the time.
Dan Koh has tried to make hay out of this as an excuse to challenge her to a rematch. He once said if she could explain herself on this he would not challenge her, but has indicated he does not accept her explanation. I did not have a dog in the recount having backed a different candidate, but I have yet to see a justification for Koh’s potential 2020 candidacy that does not sound like being a sore loser.
The other wrinkle in this is that the FEC has not been able to adjudicate the ethics complaint filed against Trahan because they do not have enough seats filled to achieve a quorum. Many federal judicatories such as this (NLRB also comes to mind.) interpret quorum as a majority of possible seats as opposed to majority of seats filled, which as a parliamentarian has always struck me as odd and asking for trouble.
