Meehan opens checkbook to reward staff, supporters

WASHINGTON --Former Rep. Martin Meehan is the first to admit he's tight with a buck.

But campaign finance reports show he spent liberally during his final three months in Congress before becoming chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Meehan doled out more than $46,000 to reward various congressional staffers, supporters, fundraisers and fellow congressmen with campaign donations, dinners at restaurants in New York City and Washington, D.C. and other freebies, including Boston Red Sox tickets.

"I'm not generous by nature," Meehan said in a recent telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It was a painful quarter for me ... I wouldn't call it a spending spree. These are more like natural wrap-up costs as I was leaving Congress."

Meehan left the House seat he held for nearly 15 years with a $4.8 million campaign account that the Lowell Democrat plans to hold onto.

Current and former members of Congress are given broad latitude on how they can use campaign funds as long as the spending relates to politics or advances their political interests.

Meehan detailed his spending in a new campaign finance report he filed this month with the Federal Election Commission covering the three-month period ending June 30.

He reported $145,765 in expenses for the quarter, including:

- a $590 dinner for former staffers at Restaurant Thalia in New York City's theater district.

- a supporters appreciation dinner at Scalinatella Restaurant in New York City costing $990.

- a $867 dinner tab at The Monocle Restaurant on Capitol Hill with fellow House members.

- a $427 dinner at Morton's steakhouse in downtown D.C. with House colleagues.

- dinner with House members costing $657 at Montmartre, a French restaurant on Capitol Hill.

- $1,743 for food at Butcher Boy Marketplace in North Andover, Mass. for "supporters appreciation dinners."

- $499 for T-shirts for supporters.

Republican political consultant Jim Nuzzo said Meehan's recent spending underscores the need to tighten campaign finance laws on how money can be used.

"I'm not attacking Marty for being profligate or illegal or immoral," Nuzzo said. "He's doing what the game is. ... He's got this big chunk of change. He views it essentially as his slush fund and the law allows him to do that."

On June 30, the day before he stepped down from Congress, Meehan wrote a $3,800 check to Lenzi's Catering Service, Inc. in Dracut, Mass. The money was advance payment for a July 28 "appreciation clambake" for former staffers.

Meehan wrote $4,000 checks to his nine fellow House members from Massachusetts and a few other congressional colleagues from across the country.

He also showed financial support for his new employer, UMass. The checks were written after he was chosen for the chancellor's job last March.

Meehan gave a $1,250 check to the UMass Foundation in April. The money paid for a table to UMass Night at the Boston Pops, an annual concert gathering that includes alumni, faculty and school officials.

Meehan last month made a $1,200 donation to the UMass-Lowell athletic department, a group he said he's given to in the past.

He spent $340 on four Red Sox tickets for Dave Trahan, a top Meehan fundraiser. Meehan praised Trahan as someone who has "raised a considerable amount of money for me over the years."

Meehan shelled out another $585 for Baltimore Orioles tickets for himself and staffers to see the Sox play in Baltimore. The event was part of Meehan's annual 5th District day in D.C. that he hosts for constituents.

"I didn't want anyone who works for me to be on someone else's ticket," he said.

Under federal campaign law, Meehan cannot make personal use of the money. He's allowed to write checks for political causes, including parties, other candidates, events and charities. He could return contributions to his donors. Or he could use it for another campaign.

Nuzzo would like to see Meehan give his leftover campaign money to the Democratic Party or to other candidates.

"Marty's getting out of the game, going into academics," Nuzzo said. "Fine. Then take the money that was intended for politics and put it back into politics."

Meehan said he's been besieged with hundreds of requests for charitable contributions since word leaked out earlier this year about his $4.8 million campaign account, the largest balance of any House member for the 2006 congressional election cycle.

As the departing Meehan made the rounds of farewell dinners with House colleagues in Washington in recent weeks, he said often had to pick up the tab.

"Everyone in Congress knows how much money I have in the bank," Meehan said. "It was awful."

Meehan said he has shut down his political campaign committee and is investing his leftover campaign funds in certificates of deposit for the time being.

Meehan raised much of his money over the past few years in anticipation of a campaign for Sen. John Kerry's seat had the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee won the White House. Meehan's Senate ambitions were snuffed out again early this year when Kerry bowed out of the 2008 presidential race, saying he would run for Senate re-election.