WASHINGTON — Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel’s flagging fund-raising efforts are being kept afloat by lobbyists who round up and deliver donors for the powerful committee chairman, new campaign-finance filings reveal.
The lobbyists, including former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., “bundled” more contributions for Rangel than for any other member of Congress in the last quarter, enabling the Harlem Democrat to raise hefty sums without lifting a finger.
Federal Election Commission records show that Rangel has received more than $213,000 in donations bundled by lobbyists since new rules requiring disclosure of those donations went into effect at the beginning of the year. Last quarter alone, Rangel, beset by tax woes despite heading the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, got $125,000 in bundled donations.
He needs the help. By this point in the last congressional cycle, he had raised more than twice the $1.1 million he’s reaped this year.