If a political drama set a lobbyist-laden fundraiser for powerful politicians at the infamous Watergate complex, Loose Lips would probably scoff at such a well-worn series of cliches. As ever, truth is stranger than fiction in D.C. politics.
LL hears that Council Chair Phil Mendelson is hosting a “reception” to raise money for his constituent service fund on Wednesday, with suggested donations ranging from $250 to $500. At-Large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie is listed as a “special guest,” per a copy of an invitation forwarded to LL, while the host committee is a veritable who’s who of D.C. bigwigs.
The listed chairs of the event include Lloyd Moore Jr. (a lawyer and former pal of Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry) and top lobbyists Jon Mandel and Kerry Pearson. The latter lobbyist, who has made a name for himself shilling for major companies such as Pepco and Fort Myer Construction over the past two decades, owns the $550,000 condo in the Watergate South building where the fundraiser is being held, per city real estate records. Other listed hosts include lobbyists Janene Jackson and Ed Fisher; attorneys Frederick Douglas and Curtis Boykin; and corporate executive turned D.C. Public Library board member Donella Brockington. (Neither Pearson nor Mandel, the listed contact for the event, responded to requests for comment.)
If all those boldface names have started to make the event seem a bit slimy, fear not: Mendo assures LL that his motives here are perfectly pure. Since the money will flow into the Council chair’s constituent service fund—rather than a campaign account, seeing as he’s not up for reelection for two years—he intends to use the proceeds to meet an expected surge in demand for rent and utility relief as the winter holidays draw near.
Councilmembers and the mayor are allowed to set up these funds for precisely this purpose. The funds allow local pols to throw some money around to host community events, pay for funeral arrangements, or otherwise help their constituents with emergency expenses. That’s a noble enough purpose. But these funds also help lawmakers burnish their reputations in the community. And what better way for a lobbyist or lawyer with interests before the D.C. government to win some favor than by helping politicos with such a project?
“I’m tired of that argument,” Mendelson says in response. “It suggests that officeholders have no spine or ethics. It is true, you can point to one or two who might be questionable, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, ‘no,’ to Mr. Pearson. I have seen colleagues, over and over, where their best friends were lobbyists, but they still get rejected on a particular issue.”
LL might argue that it is a bit difficult for Mendelson to ask D.C. residents to trust their representatives at a time when one of his colleagues is presently facing federal bribery charges. But, admittedly, that is an extreme example. The more relevant concern is perhaps that Mendo still relies on these constituent service funds at all, given the myriad problems with these programs that activists and journalists have uncovered over the years.
A 2019 study by the transparency advocacy group Public Citizen found that the “vast majority” of money raised for these funds was not spent as the law intended and instead was largely devoted to self-promotion for politicians. Former Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans attracted perhaps the most criticism for his use of the fund, after spending the constituent funds on sports tickets and even using them to pay parking fines. Memorably, Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White landed in hot water for sending $500 from his fund to a Nation of Islam convention in Chicago where, predictably, Louis Farrakhan made a series antisemitic comments.
Several councilmembers have outright refused to operate the accounts amid these various controversies, while some lawmakers to join the Council in recent years simply haven’t set them up at all. There was some interest in seriously curtailing the use of the funds or even banning them as the Council considered campaign finance reform several years ago, but that momentum has pretty much petered out.
“There was no interest among the councilmembers to deprive themselves of these slush funds back then, and I doubt any new interest in reform is arising today,” says Craig Holman, Public Citizen’s top lobbyist. “Of course, some of the biggest abusers, such as Jack Evans, have since left office, so it is possible that the abuses are somewhat less common. But ‘somewhat less common abuse’ is no reason to continue these slush funds today.”
Past financial reports indicate that Mendelson, at least, has generally used his fund for his constituents: Most expenses that LL can see are related to rent and utility relief or funding community events. And Mendelson argues that the waning popularity of the constituent service funds has actually put a larger burden on the handful of lawmakers who still maintain them. Those councilmembers who have declined to maintain their own funds, he says, will still send constituents who need help paying the bills his way.
The chair had a little more than $37,000 on hand in his account as of his most recent financial report filed on Oct. 10, but he fully expects to need much more to meet demand over the course of the holiday season. (Councilmembers are allowed to spend a total of $60,000 out of their funds each year, after Evans worked to quietly raise the limit in 2018.) Mendelson says he’s already received something like 500 requests for gift cards for meals around Thanksgiving and Christmas, not to mention a flood of calls from people looking for utility and rent assistance. His office shared a list of 27 such requests with LL, with asks ranging from about $200 to more than $12,400.
“We’re just running out of money,” Mendelson says. “There’s no question but that there have been some members who have made questionable expenses … so I try very hard to limit the expenditures to that which is completely defensible, and that’s helping schools and helping individuals and families who are in need.”
But if the demand for rent and utility relief really is so high, then why would the government pursue this piecemeal approach rather than something more systemic? Most people probably have no idea these funds exist or how to apply for the money. Mendelson argues money from the government is “much more restrictive” and that these constituent service funds can help families with all manner of expenses. But LL finds it hard to square the Council’s recent decision to make it easier to evict struggling tenants and harder to access emergency rental assistance with this line of thinking.
“I just think this is crazy, that people think that we should just raise taxes and spend more taxpayer dollars when we have had, for 50 years, the ability to do fundraisers such as I am doing,” Mendelson says.
These fundraisers are pretty uncommon—Mendelson estimates that this is his first such effort in at least the past six years. Generally, politicians stock the funds by moving money left over in their campaign accounts before they have to officially close them. Mendelson, for instance, moved over $16,000 in excess money from his last bid for office in 2022. Mayor Muriel Bowser moved over a whopping $199,000 in funds originally raised for her 2019 inauguration in March of that year and has basically been coasting off that ever since; she currently has about $94,000 still left to spend as of Oct. 1.
At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds is pretty much the only other politician to expend any serious effort in raising money for her constituent service fund in recent months. She reported raising roughly $9,000 as of July 1 (but she has yet to report her finances for October). Mendelson could pick up more than that in just one evening at Pearson’s place, given the deep pockets of many of the listed attendees.
And how’s this for irony: LL hears that Evans, perhaps the very person Mendo had in mind when he mentioned past “questionable expenses,” will likely be in attendance Wednesday night.