Steve Garvey campaign paid Ryan Garvey $32,500 to serve as consultant, report says

Steve Garvey’s U.S. Senate campaign has paid Ryan Garvey

$32,500 since December to serve as a campaign consultant, according to a campaign report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Garvey, the Republican nominee for a California U.S. Senate seat, has also reported being reimbursed $15,954 by his campaign this year, the report showed. The report only lists the money as “reimbursement” without giving any further details.

Steve Garvey has a son named Ryan Garvey. While it could not be confirmed that the Ryan Garvey listed in the report is the candidate’s son, the address is listed as the same street as the candidate in Palm Desert.

The Garvey campaign did not respond to a request for comment or clarification.

Such spending is not unusual in campaigns.

“It is legal (and not unusual) for a campaign to pay a family member provided the family member is providing bona fide services, and the rate they are paid is the usual and normal rate for such services,” said Saurav Ghosh, the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center’s director for federal campaign finance reform….

He also explained that “a candidate can be reimbursed for campaign expenses that they pay directly. The description of a campaign service as ‘campaign consulting services’ is very common and acceptable under FEC guidelines.”

Those guidelines say campaign money “may be used to make salary payments to members of the candidate’s family only if the family member is providing a bona fide service to the campaign and the payments reflect the fair market value of those services.”

The FEC warns that

“any salary payments to family members in excess of the fair market value constitute personal use.”

Guidelines on reimbursements are less specific. The FEC says it will determine on a caseby-case basis if an expense is proper.

For instance, the FEC says, “Campaign funds may be used to pay for meals during face-to-face fundraising events. By contrast, a candidate may not use campaign funds to take his or her family out to dinner.”

The $15,954 in Garvey reimbursements this year are listed as six different payments from February 5 to March 31. In each case they are only described as “reimbursements” with no further details.

Last year, Garvey was reimbursed $11,000 on November 1 for “research deposit paid” and $3,655 for “reimbursement for meetings and meals.”

There was no other detail.

The campaign of Rep. Adam Schiff, D-burbank, Garvey’s opponent, did not pay any family member for campaign services, its FEC report says.

Schiff himself is listed as receiving $832.69 in reimbursements since July. Each expense is listed as payment for either travel or equipment.

The FEC report filed by the Garvey campaign says it paid Ryan Garvey $6,500 on each of five different occasions, on December 12 and 18, January 12 and February 6 and 29. In each case, it says the payments were for “campaign consulting services.”

The candidate’s son, like his father, pursued a baseball career, playing for the University of Southern California and Riverside Community College, and in the Colorado Rockies minor league system. Steve Garvey was an all-star first baseman with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1987.

A profile for Ryan Garvey on Linkedin states that he is “a sales professional, currently serving clients at a luxury sporting apparel and equipment company in Park City Utah. I have a proven record of strong sales, merchandising and organizational skills. I am customer service driven and a true team player”

There is no mention of any experience with a political campaign.

Steve Garvey is also new to politics. He has toyed with the idea of running for the Senate for years, but ran for the first time now. His campaign raised $3.39 million between Feb. 15 and March 31, roughly the same amount as Schiff in that period.

Schiff, though, had $4.8 million on hand at the end of the reporting period March 31, while Garvey had $1.6 million. Schiff reported no debt, while Garvey’s campaign listed $373,000 in outstanding obligations for campaignrelated expenses..

Schiff remains the favorite to win, as polls show him with a comfortable lead. Garvey is running in a heavily Democratic state and The Bee has written about his tax debts totaling as much as $750,000.