NC Republicans in primary fight argue over taxpayer-funded trips

A North Carolina congressman’s international travel expenses are under fire in the only place in the country this year where two congressional incumbents from the same party are squaring off in a heated primary.

U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers, a North Carolina Republican seeking her fourth term in Congress, accuses U.S. Rep. George Holding of spending too much time and money on overseas trips.

In a related move this week, Ellmers introduced a bill that would impose new reporting requirements for members of the House of Representatives who use taxpayer money for travel.

Holding told McClatchy that his expenses have been reasonable and the trips are necessary for him to investigate U.S. relations with foreign countries.

“I don’t agree with most of Obama’s foreign policy,” he said. White House senior officials “do not tell us the truth in Congress.”

Ellmers has made the accusations in a televised debate, a campaign ad and political mailers.

Zeroing in on a few trips from 2013 and 2015, Ellmers is calling Holding’s travel “taxpayer-funded free rides.” She wants the U.S. House Ethics Committee to look into Holding’s expenditures.

The attacks come as Ellmers has been fending off criticism of her voting record and has lost the endorsements of a few key conservative groups to Holding, her most-well-financed primary opponent.

As the two duke it out in the final days of campaigning before the primary June 7, political experts say it’s not uncommon for candidates to use travel expenses as ammunition against opponents – especially incumbents.

“One of the liabilities of running as an incumbent is that you have a longer record to be attacked,” said Nathan Gonzalez, the editor and publisher of The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter covering federal and state elections.

“It’s common for candidates to throw around the word investigation in the context of the campaign,” he said, adding that Ellmers’ push for an ethics inquiry doesn’t guarantee the committee will take up the issue. Even if the panel does investigate, it’s not clear that Holding has violated any House rules.

Investigations rarely end in findings of wrongdoing and the House rarely censures members, said David McLennan, political science professor at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Re-election fights, McLennan said, tend to bring up accusations of fundraising or ethics violations.

Ellmers leaps on Holding flight upgrade

Ellmers points to a trip Holding took to the Arab country of Jordan in March 2015. The Jordan CODEL – a term referring to a taxpayer-funded U.S. congressional delegation trip abroad – was led by then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Ellmers criticizes Holding for “palling around” with Boehner by going on the trip, and for the flight Holding booked back to North Carolina.

This comes as Ellmers has been singled out herself by some who say she has aligned herself too closely with established Republican leaders such as Boehner and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

“John Boehner would reward members with CODEL trips,” Ellmers said recently in an interview with The News & Observer, a McClatchy property. “Tell me who was in with leadership and who was not.”

The delegation in question traveled to the Middle East on a military flight but Holding came back early on a commercial flight, which meant his travel cost more than that of other members of Congress on the trip who returned on the government-owned plane. The fare on Holding’s business-class flight totaled $5,885 in added expenses.

Ellmers’ campaign provided McClatchy with a travel authorization document signed by Holding last year showing the requested flight upgrade cost $4,414.50 more than a regular economy/coach ticket. Upgrade requests by members of Congress may be approved for multiple reasons. Without special approval, members fly coach.

Holding’s reason for wanting the business class seat, according to the document, was that his travel time back to North Carolina was more than 14 hours and he had an event to attend soon after returning – a circumstance that allows such an upgrade, under congressional travel rules.

“I had a full day the next day,” Holding said in an interview. “I had a long-standing commitment to give the annual speech at the Vance County Chamber of Commerce in Henderson.”

The speech, he said, was about the fight against the Islamic State group, and he relayed new information about what he’d just learned in Jordan.

Still, Ellmers contends that Holding’s travel history shows “he’s part of the establishment good-old-boy network” and has an “entitlement mentality and a taste for extravagance.”

In response, Holding says he’s gleaned valuable information about national security, foreign policy and military affairs from delegation trips. Foreign government officials, he said, are often more frank if members of Congress travel to their countries than are senior members of President Barack Obama’s administration who report on current events.

For example, Holding said, he came back from a 2015 trip to India convinced it would be a bad idea to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan – a plan Secretary of State John Kerry has said is crucial to continued military help combating terrorism in the region.

“I was vehemently opposed to (selling Pakistan the F-16s), and a lot of that was born out of what I learned in India,” Holding said.

The Indian government had difficulty extraditing terror suspects from Pakistan, Holding said. He thought the Obama administration had been misleading on U.S. relations with India and Pakistan, and about relations between the two South Asian countries.

Ellmers questioned why Holding’s expenses from India were so much more than those of the others on the trip. Her campaign called attention to a congressional document showing that Holding had reported $20,279 in trip costs for “other purposes.” Holding provided documentation to McClatchy explaining those costs were incidental expenses for not just himself but also for the nine other officials on the trip.

Because he was the India CODEL leader, and due to the reporting requirements in place at the time, Holding had to list the $20,279 in “delegation costs” under his name on official records. The trip included three other members of Congress, three staff members from the House Foreign Affairs Committee and three Air Force personnel as part of a military attaché – standard for CODELs, Holding said.

Redistricting fuels incumbent rivalry

Ellmers’ late-in-the-game offensive strike against Holding may be a sign of how uncertain this year’s primary outcome is.

State lawmakers in North Carolina were forced to redraw congressional district maps after a court struck down the old districts. That process led the N.C. legislature to delay the congressional primary elections by a month and a half and gave newcomers a chance to file to run.

The upcoming special primary election won’t allow for runoffs – meaning a candidate doesn’t need a majority of votes to win a three-way race.

The timing of Ellmers’ attacks on Holding’s travel, Gonzalez said, isn’t surprising. Candidates usually think voters pay increasing attention to politics as Election Day inches closer.

The final weeks of campaigning, he said, make for fertile ground for a candidate’s “most potent” attacks.

Ellmers and Holding haven’t publicly been foes for long.

Before February, the two were just Republican House colleagues – often voting along party lines together in Congress.

But redistricting shifted Holding’s 13th Congressional District more than 100 miles west, and he announced plans three months ago to challenge Ellmers for her seat. Former U.S. Senate candidate and physician Greg Brannon joined them in the race.

The new 2nd Congressional District includes towns Holding and Ellmers have both at times represented. Holding may see an advantage by currently representing a larger swath of the newly drawn 2nd than Ellmers does.

Either Holding or Ellmers – or both, if Brannon manages an underdog victory – will lose their seat in Congress this year. The winner of the GOP primary in the 2nd District will face a Democratic challenger in November. The district, however, leans heavily Republican.

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 11:15 AM with the headline "NC Republicans in primary fight argue over taxpayer-funded trips."