It looks like a California Representative may have used campaign funds in a less-than-legal manner, potentially purchasing more than 50 video games through Steam.
It’s a big election year, so we’re used to hearing about politicians doing things they aren’t supposed to. But when it comes to misusing campaign funds, that’s usually tied to stories about funding a cruise, lining someone’s pocket or the like. Politicians aren’t often accused of spending their campaign money on, like, Call of Duty and Madden.
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, however, that could very well be the case when it comes to Alpine, California Representative Duncan Hunter, who is currently under question by the Federal Election Commission for making 68 purchases through the Steam gaming platform utilizing campaign funds.
According to the initial report, Hunter’s spokesperson, Joe Kasper, is arguing that Hunter’s son is the one actually responsible for the purchases. In short, the kid may have gotten a hold of his dad’s wallet, grabbed a random credit card and started making Steam purchases totaling a whopping $1,300. Assuming this is all accurate, the kid just grabbed the absolute worst credit card of the bunch, the one that happens to be tied to daddy’s job and not for personal use.
We’d be interested in seeing a list of the games, DLC and subscriptions purchased, if only to find out what one spends $1,300 on in one go through Steam. That’s a pretty hefty shopping spree.
Kasper further explains that the amount actually stems from an initial purchase, with additional charges being added on while Hunter tried to shut down the account and dispute the charges. It’s a pretty messed up situation, and not one Hunter has a heck of a lot of time to untangle.
The FEC has given him until May 9 to prove that either the full amount has been refunded or that he has paid for the charges utilizing his personal funds. That’s only about four weeks and, if I’ve learned anything from working with customer service, it’s that a month might not be enough time to clear up something as drastic as a $1,300 bill. Still, as a last-ditch effort, at least he has the ability to foot the bill himself, as well as ground his son for a four-year term.
Apparently this all came to light when someone noticed Hunter had listed $1,302 worth of Steam Games on his 2015 year-end financial discloser, along with a not that these were “personal expense – to be paid back.” Not such a big issue (mistakes happen, after all), accept for the fact that, three years into 2016, the funds had not been repaid.
As always, we now turn this over to our readers, but not in the way you might have expected. What we want to know it: What type of games do you think a guy like Representative Hunter would play? Is he a Sims fanatic or more of a Destiny type? Maybe he sticks to something like Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, games he can get in quick sessions of when he’s not helping run the country. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
