WASHINGTON — House Republicans demanded yesterday that freshman Rep. Mike McMahon of Staten Island return $15,000 in campaign donations from Rep. Charles Rangel, who is being probed for ethical violations.
The National Republican Campaign Committee sent out a tongue-in-cheek e-mail to supporters evoking the 1980s hit song “Tainted Love” to put McMahon’s feet to the fire as a recipient of Rangel’s largesse.
“McMahon has a decision to make: come clean or follow the path of the band Soft Cell as a one-hit wonder Member of Congress,” reads the e-mail, which included a music video of the song.
McMahon spokeswoman Lauren Amendolara said her boss has no intention of returning Rangel’s donations.
“As dean of the delegation, Rangel raises money for members of Congress — this is completely unrelated to his ethics investigation,” Amendolara said.
Rangel gave fellow Democrat McMahon $14,000 out of his campaign accounts prior to last year’s election, and another $1,000 this year.
Rangel has commented on occasion that raising money became much easier after he became chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He gave more cash to fellow candidates for the 2008 election than almost any other member of Congress.
After Rangel’s ethical problems began to stack up a year ago, Republicans began turning up the pressure on candidates to refund Rangel’s money or be forever associated with the man they peg as a tax cheat.
A few Democrats returned Rangel’s donations, including Ethics Committee member Peter Welch of Vermont, who said he returned Rangel’s $20,000 out of “an abundance of caution.”
Two other Democrats on the panel — Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina — have refused to return Rangel’s contributions.
The House Ethics Committee’s wide-ranging investigation of Rangel has been expanded twice, as new revelations have come to light.
The panel is examining Rangel’s failure to declare rental income on a beachfront villa he owns in the Dominican Republic and his storage of a vintage Mercedes in a House parking garage — stories that were first reported by The Post.
The panel also is probing his use of four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem; his use of congressional stationery to solicit donations for an academic center named for him at City College; allegations that he used his position to help a million-dollar donor to the Rangel Center retain a lucrative tax break; and whether Rangel broke House rules when he went on Caribbean trips that appeared to be sponsored by corporate interests.
daphne.retter@nypost.com