Yesterday, Republican Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois abruptly announced his resignation three months into his fourth term in the wake of a tsunami of questions about his spending. Well, it turns out that one of the rising stars of the GOP was brought down by Politico’s discovery that he claimed to have driven his personal car for almost double the miles that were actually on his odometer–and sent the bill to taxpayers and his campaign.
In 2009, ten months into his first term, Schock bought a 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe from a dealership in his hometown of Peoria. Over the next four years, Schock billed the federal government for over 123,100 miles of travel. He billed his campaign for an additional 49,400 miles. However, Politico got its hands on documents Schock signed when he transferred the Tahoe back to the dealership. Those documents certified that there were 81,800 miles on the Tahoe’s odometer.? Translation–Schock was reimbursed for over 90,000 miles more than were actually on the car. There is no evidence that Schock ever had another car in his name from 2009 to 2014, and numerous sources familiar with his office operations told Politico that he drove no other cars during this period either.
Schock’s other instances of lavish spending–from his “Downton Abbey”-style office to his flights on private planes–could plausibly be chalked up to a kid-at-Christmas mentality, or sloppy accounting. But there is no innocent explanation–at least that I know of–for such a large discrepancy between the mileage on Schock’s odometer and the bills he sent to the government and his campaign. I could see claiming an additional 10,000 miles as an innocent mistake caused by a secretary filling the figures in wrong. But 90,000? Come on. Let’s call this one for what it is–Schock was caught in a shockingly brazen lie–and yes, the pun was intended.
Schock probably knew he was finished. While strolling near the Capitol with a close friend, fellow Republican Jason Smith of Missouri, Schock was frantically peeking at his iPhone. Apparently he saw Politico’s story flash across his phone, because within hours he had announced he would leave the House on March 31. The initial picture that I got was that House Speaker John Boehner and the rest of the Republican leadership had called Schock in and told–not asked–him to resign. Say what you will about Boehner, but he is pretty good about dropping the hammer on this kind of behavior. However, it turns out that Schock’s resignation took Boehner by surprise. No one else in the Illinois delegation knew, and according to fellow Illinois Republican John Shimkus, his staff may not have known either.
Some of Schock’s soon-to-be former associates told Politico that Schock was tripped up by “immaturity, sloppiness and an oversized ego.” I suspect that ego may have been ballooned by representing a district that would elect a comatose Republican. Schock represented a large swath of central Illinois stretching from Quincy through Peoria to Springfield. It was one of two districts in Illinois that didn’t vote for Obama in 2008, and was made even more Republican in the last redistricting; with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+11, it is the second-reddest district in Illinois. Schock would have grown old in this district had it not been for his sloppy–and in this case, possibly illegal–spending habits. Perhaps he’d have been a little more careful if he’d had to worry about being held to account at the ballot box. To my mind, this is just the latest evidence that politicians need to get out of the redistricting business. The longer you have so many districts that are drawn in a way that the minority party cannot possibly win, the more often you’ll see episodes like this–on both sides of the aisle.
As if he had a choice, Schock disgorged every penny he has received for official mileage over his five-plus years in Congress. However, I have to hope that federal prosecutors are at least taking a look at Schock’s spending practices, even though his resignation derailed the House ethics probe into the matter. Simply put, trying to bill taxpayers and your campaign for almost double the miles you actually drove is far too egregious to ignore.
