How Gillibrand Likes To Live Large

New York’s own Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand turns out to have a taste for the high life — funded by her donors. She’s one of several senators outed by Issue One and the Campaign Legal Center for evident abuse of a lightly regulated “leadership PAC.”

Nearly every congressman controls such a PAC, using it for political outlays they’d rather not spend more-regulated campaign gifts to cover. But Gillibrand stands out for using most of the “political action committee” cash for officially non-political purposes.

Specifically, in the 2019-2020 cycle, just a quarter of her $1.9 million in leadership PAC spending went to political activities. Most of the dough went to fund expensive dinners at top restaurants and stays at elite resorts, such as a $7,800 splurge at a five-star New York City hotel and $2,100 at the five-star Viceroy L’Ermitage Beverly Hills.

Collectively, the report says, federal lawmakers’ leadership PACs spent less than half their cash on actual politics and “more than $2 million at hotels and resorts, $220,000 at sporting events and concerts, $190,000 at ski resorts and $150,000 at steakhouses.”

The excuse for this is that pols supposedly need to live large at the same level as their wealthiest donors: Reginald Van Bigbucks won’t cut a check unless he meets you at Casino Royale. So Gillibrand uses the corporate donations that constitute most leadership PAC funds to schmooze with potential big donors — even more than average.

To be fair, she was running for president in this period, and perhaps those ambitions justify all the high living. On the other hand, she washed out in August 2019, long before any primary votes were cast — never having made a dent in the polls.

But at least she has some glorious hotel stays to look back on.