Andrews says he will repay campaign for wedding trip

One day after he defended a family trip to Scotland as a legitimate political expense, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D., N.J.) said he would repay his campaign and redirect the money to homeless veterans.

But Andrews said he would not reimburse his campaign coffers for other events where personal and political have mingled.

In 2009, he spent $33,000 for a party to celebrate his inauguration to the 111th Congress and his daughter Jacquelyn's Sweet Sixteen party, according to campaign-finance reports. In June, he threw a similar bash at his Haddon Heights home to celebrate his 20 years in Congress and Jacquelyn's high school graduation. It cost his campaign $10,000, according to financial disclosures.

"Those are absolutely within the spirit and the letter of the law," Andrews said Tuesday evening. Campaign funds were used solely for the political elements of the parties; he paid for costs of his daughter's celebrations with his own money.

Andrews withdrew more than $10,000 from his campaign fund to attend a wedding in Edinburgh in June for a donor and volunteer adviser. Andrews paid $7,725 for him and his family to stay at a five-star hotel and $463 for the wedding gift of china. He took $2,610 from his campaign fund for petty cash for the trip, according to federal campaign-finance reports.

Andrews, 54, maintains that expensing the trip to his campaign was legal. But on Tuesday he decided to repay the money because chatter about it had become a distraction.

"We couldn't talk about it and work on the issues people really care about," Andrews said.

For government watchdog organizations and Republicans, the repayment is too little too late.

"Much like an apprehended bank robber cannot be absolved of his crimes by returning the stolen money, neither can Rep. Andrews evade responsibility for his actions by returning the campaign funds," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). "Further, the Scotland trip is not the only instance in which the congressman misappropriated campaign funds for his personal use."

CREW plans to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission asking the agency to examine Andrews' expenses. Meanwhile, the Camden County GOP sent a letter Tuesday to the House Committee on Ethics calling for an investigation.

Craig Holman, a congressional ethics expert and lobbyist with the nonpartisan group Public Citizen, said Andrews might have done enough to keep investigators off his back.