Senator Tim Scott’s presidential campaign paid $280,000 for air travel in just three months to a mysterious company whose listed address is a Staples store in Fairfax, Virginia, according to official financial records.
It is an example of how politicians who demand transparency in public bodies can camouflage the way they use donor money.
In Scott’s case, it raises questions about whether he’s trying to cover up the use of private jets to travel around the country while selling a story about how he rose from humble beginnings to represent the people of South Carolina in the Senate.
And it’s because less cash-rich campaigns fuel the fire and make a virtue of their use of commercial flights.
Federal Election Commission filings show that the Scott Campaign made 10 payments in the second quarter of 2023 to Advanced Planning and Logistics, a public company incorporated in December 2022.
Senator Tim Scott was in the Senate for votes Thursday afternoon before leaving for Iowa in the evening for a town hall event with Republicans
The event kicked off at 6:30 p.m. central time in Ankeny, just outside of Des Moines.
The largest payment was for more than $62,000.
The frequency of payments increased after Scott launched his campaign at the end of May, with seven payments since then.
Each is listed as ‘travel: air’.
The New York Times was first to report on Scott’s use of the LLCs last week, citing campaign finance experts who said it undermined laws designed to shed light on who paid what to whom.
His campaign did not answer questions from DailyMail.com about the ultimate destination of the money and whether the LLC hid private jet use.
Scott’s campaign made another 19 payments to the same company. Several appear to be bundled fees for multiple services and are labeled “production costs and travel: plane,” but with no further explanation.
In total, it paid nearly $1 million to Advanced Planning and Logistics.
While Scott has been seen flying commercial flights, it is believed he also uses private jets to travel around the country.
He was in Washington on Thursday afternoon for a vote in the Senate. At 6:30 p.m., he had arrived in Ankeny, Iowa, for a town hall event.
There was no direct or indirect commercial flight from Washington to Des Moines, the nearest local airport, that could have gotten him to the event in time.
The Federal Election Commission lists payments made by the Scott campaign, including nearly a million dollars in Advanced Planning and Logistics
Nikki Haley and her campaign have been trying to make a virtue of using commercial scheduled flights, using the hashtag #WeFlyCommercial to highlight the issue
The use of private jets has already become a campaign theme.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came under intense scrutiny for flying around the country in jets provided by donors and nonprofits before entering the race.
He faces tougher regulations now that he is a candidate, but a recent NBC analysis found he paid $500,000 for a trip to N2024D LLC, which shares an address with political groups.
That has led to the jabbing of Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
Last week, she thanked an American Airlines member for helping her when she was late for a flight. She ended the post with the hashtag #WeFlyCommercial.
Team Haley made the point even clearer. It retweeted her post and added: “We will never take our supporters’ donations for granted! Every penny counts. #WeFlyCommercial.’
Some campaigns have made their use of private jets virtual.
For Donald Trump, his newly refurbished Boeing 757 is all part of the brand. Supporters roar approvingly as it flies over rally grounds and it often forms a background for his speeches.
Donald Trump uses his private jet as a campaign prop and uses it as a backdrop for speeches. “It makes a great impression on people,” he told DailyMail.com after this meeting in Waco, Texas
Our recent poll shows how Scott (along with Chris Christie) has eaten into the vote share of Trump and Ron DeSantis in the early New Hampshire state primary
Vivek Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old tech entrepreneur, has also been open about how it’s often the only way to get from A to B on time. Again, it serves to illustrate his campaign persona of a successful manager who gets things done.
During the first months of the campaign, Scott has seen his fortunes rise.
A recent JL Partners poll for DailyMail.com placed him tied for third among contenders in the early New Hampshire state primary, and he is the Republicans’ top pick for vice president.
A poll last week for Fox Business showed he had the support of 11 percent of Republicans in Iowa, another early state, placing him third as well.
The result is a series of negative stories, including accusations that he is soft on crime and increased scrutiny of his campaign’s high spending.
Scott told DailyMail.com on Friday that it was a sign of success.
“The more they attack, the better. We’re doing great news,” he said.
“We have a strong, powerful record of who we are.”
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