Embattled Rangel to fundraise for Kanjorski

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY): Observer PhotoWASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Nanticoke) is set to be the beneficiary of a Sept. 24 fundraiser featuring Charlie Rangel, the embattled chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

The event, scheduled to take place at The Monocle restaurant on Capitol Hill, will help fill Kanjorski’s campaign coffers as he prepares to face off against Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta. Aides to Rangel and Kanjorski confirmed the event but did not provide any further details.

The fundraiser comes as Rangel, a nineteen-term congressman from New York City, is facing mounting questions over his finances.

Just today, Rangel announced in a press conference that he would be paying $5,000 in unpaid back taxes on a beach vacation home he owns in the Dominican Republic. Rangel is also facing questions about owning four rent-controlled New York City apartments at below-market rates and using congressional stationary to solicit funds for the construction of an academic center bearing his name. Rangel has asked the House ethics committee to probe all three actions, though he has declined to step down from his post on the Ways and Means Committee.

Republicans have seized on the Rangel headlines, hammering Kanjorski and other congressional Democrats in competitive races this fall who have benefited from Rangel’s sizable fundraising capabilities.

Today’s news that Kanjorski, who is widely seen as being in the fight of his political life against Barletta, is fundraising with Rangel provoked a swift rebuke from Republicans. The GOP has continually hammered Kanjorski on ethics, specifically his earmarking of $10 million in federal funding for a company that is controlled by his family.

“Birds of a feather flock together. This is just more damning evidence in the case against Paul Kanjorski,” said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Maybe Charlie Rangel and Paul Kanjorski can vacation in Punta Cana together after they are thrown out of office for ethical misconduct.”

A Kanjorski spokesman said the campaign had no plans to cancel the event and lashed out at Barletta, who Kanjorski’s side has accused of taking money from individuals who have been associated with a Luzerne County drug ring.

“When Lou Barletta gives back the thousands of dollars he received the convicted and jailed drug dealer and his brother in Hazleton, and when he gives back the thousands of dollars he received from landfill operators who are also under indictment, and when he gives back the money he has received from indicted U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, we’ll give some thought to cancelling our fundraiser with Charlie Rangel,” said Kanjorski campaign spokesman Ed Mitchell.