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Ethics probe in play in District 1 raceBy Geoffrey Cooper Rocky Mount Telegram Monday, August 23, 2010 U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield said he will not remove himself from the U.S. House Ethics Committee or return contributions previously made by embattled U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel. Butterfield, D-1st District, recently has received criticism from his midterm election challenger, Republican Ashley Woolard, for taking $4,000 from Rangel’s political action committee. Rangel has come under fire from House members for ethics violations. Rangel, a New York Democrat, was charged last month with 13 counts of violating House rules and federal laws. One of those charges involve living in several rent-stabilized apartments in New York City while claiming his Washington, D.C., home as his primary residence for tax purposes. Rangel is a long-standing member of Congress and has been serving in the House since 1971. He was the House Ways and Means Committee chairman since January 2007 but stepped down in March. For weeks, Woolard has traveled throughout the district saying he wants Butterfield to remove himself from discussions on Rangel’s ethics charges and return the donations due to concerns of partiality. “Congressman Butterfield must return these political bribes before the September trial,” Woolard said in a statement. “Failure to do so — as many of his Democratic colleagues have done already — ensures this issue will be a dominant theme in the upcoming election campaign.” Butterfield, a three-term Wilson Democrat, will defend his House seat against the Washington businessman in the November elections. Butterfield serves on the ethics committee with nine other federal lawmakers. The committee is composed of five Democrats and five Republicans. Butterfield said the committee is a process of “peer-review process” and that he is capable of being an impartial member of the ethics panel, citing his 15 years as a state judge as proof. “To say that I have a conflict of interest because I was given a campaign donation ?EUR? should not disqualify me from being involved in the case,” Butterfield said in a telephone interview. “Giving the money back does not solve anything. ?EUR? I had to make the decision that I can be fair and impartial in hearing the Rangel case. ?EUR? I have come to the conclusion that I can.” Butterfield said Rangel’s political action committee gave him a $3,000 donation during his first run for Congress in 2004. Another $1,000 came from Rangel’s political action committee after Butterfield was elected to office. The donations came before Butterfield’s appointment to the ethics committee, and Butterfield said, “there was nothing (Rangel) was expecting in turn for that.” It is common for members of Congress or their leadership political action committee to donate funds to assist those aspiring for a congressional seat, Butterfield said. Woolard maintains that a cruise Butterfield took with Rangel in 2005 to the Caribbean cause a conflict of interest. Butterfield and Rangel were among the lawmakers who attended the congressional delegation trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2005 sponsored by New York Carib News. Butterfield chaired the ethics subcommittee that found Rangel responsible of the charges related to the later trip. Woolard said Butterfield still has tainted his position on the ethics panel. “Congressman Butterfield knows keeping this money is wrong, yet he refuses to return it,” Woolard said. “This begs the question of who he is really working for — it’s obvious it is not the people of Eastern North Carolina.” |
