California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s campaign spent more than $2.1 million last year, with expenses including international travel, fine dining, luxury spas, chauffeured cars, childcare and more, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
More than $430,000 of Swalwell’s expenses from last year are marked as “travel,” campaign records show. At least $13,000 was spent overseas, including on trips to the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Nearly $350,000 of the travel expenses were spent on visiting entities based outside of California.
The House Ethics Manual allows campaign funds to be used on trips to “attend a campaign or political event, or to engage in other campaign activity.”
Additionally, FEC allows a member to use campaign funds to pay for travel and related expenses of his or her spouse and minor children at political events and events that the lawmaker is attending in an official capacity.