McClintock attacks Brown on Rangel, Pelosi donations

State Sen. Tom McClintock's congressional campaign again criticized opponent Charlie Brown over his campaign contributions from embattled U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-New York) and noted that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who has also contributed to Brown's campaign, is facing questions about her own campaign fundraising.

The campaign criticized Brown, a Roseville Democrat, for staying silent about both fellow Democrats while making ethics a centerpiece of his previous campaign for the 4th Congressional District in 2006.

"As we saw in his refusal to return tainted campaign cash to Democrat Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee Charley Rangel, Brown talks a good game about ethics but fails to utter one word criticizing Democrat big wigs when they are ethically challenged," said Bill George, a spokesman for McClintock's (R-Thousand Oaks) campaign, in a press release.

The release pointed out that Brown has received $11,150 in donations from Rangel and $12,000 in donations from Pelosi.

Rangel has called for an investigation into his own activities after a newspaper report found that he failed to report income from a rental home in the Dominican Republic. At least one member of Congress, Mark Udall (D-Colo.), has called on Rangel to step down as committee chair.

Pelosi has faced criticism this week after Fox News reported that her political action committee had paid her husband's business firm over $100,000 in the last decade for work done for the committee.

Brown's campaign manager said McClintock, not Brown, is the only candidate in the race to have accepted money from someone under federal criminal investigation when he did so from a PAC controlled by U.S. Rep Tom Feeney (R-Florida).

"For three years, Charlie Brown has been saying there should be regulation on spouses being paid with campaign funds," said Todd Stenhouse. "There is a regulation of paying taxes, so why hasn't Tom McClintock paid taxes on $306,000 he's taken from the people of California?"

Brown's campaign has previously criticized McClintock for collecting per diem payments for travel to his Southern California district while he lived in Elk Grove.

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