Democratic Senators Say a Campaign Treasurer Stole Their Money
WASHINGTON — At least four Democratic political committees suspect their former campaign treasurer is behind the “misappropriation” of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds, according to federal records reviewed by Rolling Stone.
The committees — including those led by Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner — have alerted law enforcement officials and federal regulators and continue to internally investigate the matter, they acknowledge.
The alleged misappropriations of funds are the latest in a string of high-profile thefts and unauthorized financial transactions that have recently walloped federal political committees of all partisan stripes, collectively costing them millions of dollars.
Kaine’s campaign committee, Kaine for Virginia, said it fired treasurer Katherine Buchanan, who it suspected of keeping incorrect records. It “does not know the extent of Ms. Buchanan’s apparent misappropriations,” the committee told Federal Election Commission (FEC) officials in a letter dated June 6.
Kaine’s committee said Buchanan sent it $18,607 on May 24 and another $137,967 on June 4 in what the committee believes to be an “attempted repayment of misappropriated funds,” it wrote the FEC.
“Whether these payments fully reimburse the committee for all misappropriated funds is still under review,” Kaine’s campaign committee wrote, noting it has reported the situation to the Internal Revenue Service and law enforcement.
Federal authorities contacted Kaine’s campaign about Buchanan in April, and the campaign “immediately removed the individual’s access to all campaign accounts, notified the FEC and the Alexandria (Va.) Police Department, and hired a new compliance firm,” Kaine spokesperson Janine Kritschgau told Rolling Stone.
Phone and email messages left for Buchanan were not returned.
The Forward Together PAC — a leadership political action committee led by Warner — similarly informed the FEC in July that it suspects Buchanan misappropriated funds. Forward Together PAC likewise fired Buchanan and also “does not yet know the full amount of funds that were misappropriated,” it told FEC officials on July 15.
Federal authorities also alerted Warner’s office to the allegations in April, and Warner’s committee “moved immediately to remove Ms. Buchanan’s access to the accounts in question,” Rachel Cohen, a Warner spokesperson, said in an email. “The committee is currently conducting an audit, has implemented corrective measures, put in place a new compliance firm, and is working with the FEC on this issue.”
Center Aisle PAC, a leadership PAC led by former Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), told the FEC in a letter dated Oct. 20 that Buchanan “apparently engaged in a practice of misappropriating committee funds and submitting incorrect reports.”
FEC records indicate that Buchanan sent a “repayment of misappropriated funds” to Center Aisle PAC on Sept. 20. Buchanan also sent $4,930 to Center Aisle PAC on Sept. 27 for a “return of funds misappropriated” from DANG PAC, a now-defunct political committee affiliated with Murphy’s Center Aisle PAC.
Center Aisle PAC’s current treasurer, Lauren Decot Lee, who did not return messages, told the FEC that Buchanan “has repaid some of the misappropriated funds to the committee,” but that it, too, does not know the “full extent of Ms. Buchanan’s apparent misappropriations.” A Jan. 12 letter back from the FEC asked Center Aisle PAC for “further clarifying information.”
The bipartisan FEC, which has civil law enforcement jurisdiction over campaign finance matters, declined to comment. Spokesperson Myles Martin tells Rolling Stone the FEC “would not be able to provide any information regarding matters that have the potential to come before the commission, nor may we comment on the activities or filings of specific committees.”
Nevertheless, Kaine for Virginia is in “communication with the commission on this matter, and the commission is aware that the committee’s review of this matter is ongoing,” Kaine’s committee wrote to the FEC in October. Kaine has served in the U.S. Senate since 2013 and was Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in 2016.
IRS spokesperson Eric Smith declined to comment on Buchanan, as did the FBI, which said in a statement it could “neither confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation.” The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department said it had not been contacted about Buchanan. The Alexandria Police Department did not respond to messages.
Buchanan has been on federal regulators’ radar before, albeit in less dramatic fashion: In 2021, the FEC fined the campaign committee of Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Buchanan, then its treasurer, $3,101 for failing to properly disclose campaign contributions.
In all, Buchanan has worked for several dozen Democratic political committees over the past decade, with many based in Virginia, according to FEC records.
The allegations against Buchanan are reminiscent of the financial scandal involving Kinde Durkee, a Democratic political committee treasurer who was sentenced in 2012 to eight years in prison and $10.5 million in restitution. Durkee pleaded guilty to five counts of mail fraud after stealing millions of dollars in campaign funds from various Democratic clients, including $4.5 million from the campaign account of then-Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
Thieves, cheats, and fraudsters have bilked dozens of other notable political committees out of big money in recent years.
Among them: Hackers jacked the Wisconsin Republican Party of more than $2.3 million in 2020, and President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign lost $71,000, Business Insider reported.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) fell victim to a fraudulent invoice scheme that in 2022 cost his campaign committee $690,000, Raw Story reported.
In 2023, a check thief swiped more than $10,000 from New York Democrat and then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s re-election committee.
Reps. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Russell Fry (R-S.C.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have all lost campaign money.
So, too, did the committees of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), a 2020 presidential candidate who President-elect Donald Trump recently nominated as his director of national intelligence.
The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump super PAC, got hit for $35,000 last year. Even the 2020 presidential campaign of Kanye West, now Ye, fell victim to repeated theft incidents.
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