Lacy Clay's Campaign "Payments" - UPDATED

Hi all. I cannot say that I am back with avengance, but I am back. Without going into it, I have some ongoing things with my family and work that have been preventing me from being able to blog as much as I have wanted. I have still been keeping active in the community, attending some of the Tea Party events and such. I have not reported on them since Adam Sharp from Sharp Elbows, Jim Hoft from Gateway Pundit and Darren from Reboot Congress, to name a few, have done such a good job in covering those events, I did not want to inundate everyone with repeat coverage.

That said, I have been doing what I normally do and digging through the various muck that is out there. Specifically, I have been looking over the Federal Elections Committee reports. Specifically, I checked the first quarter reports for 2010 and I found something rather interesting. For those of you not familiar with it, campaign law requires that along with major contributions, all major spending be documented. Looking over Lacy Clay's report for the first quarter of 2010 found that he has spent $17,650 on fundraising fees to the Law Office Of Michelle C. Clay, LLC. This just happens to be Lacy's sister. According to this article, this appears to be an ongoing practice.

Rep. William Lacy Clay’s (D-Mo.) campaign has paid his sister, a former lobbyist, more than $40,000 in fundraising and legal fees so far this cycle, roughly 20 percent of his campaign’s overall receipts, according to CQ MoneyLine.

In this year’s third fundraising quarter alone, Clay’s campaign paid $12,527 to the Law Office of Michelle C Clay LLC, whose Silver Spring, Md., address is listed as her house, according to public records. During the past six years, campaign finance records indicate that Clay’s campaign has paid his sister $231,000 in legal and fundraising expenses overall.

According to lobbying disclosures filed with the Secretary of the Senate, Michelle Clay once represented the municipal government of her family’s hometown, St. Louis. Both Clay’s campaign and Michelle Clay declined to comment.

Wow, that is very interesting. Lacy is using about 20% of his campaign contributions to pay his sister for "fundraising" fees. I wonder what all of those people who have contributed to Lacy think of him paying his sister for fundraising fees. What is she doing to earn those fees and why won't Lacy or his sister comment on it? Where is all of the money going?

I am sure Lacy does not understand this, but this is the type of thing that people do NOT want. This type of backroom deal. If the payments are legit, explain their purpose. Is his sister the best person to help his campaign. Is Lacy really being fiscally responsible with his contributions?
I guess the voters will decide this in November.

UPDATE - Based off of numbers from OpenSecrets.org, Lacy Clay has disclosed 12 payments to his sister totaling $78,142 for this current election cycle. That is more than two times the amount of money than he has paid to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It took the top 13 contributor groups (combining individuals and PAC's together) to pay Lacy's sister for her fundraising services. What is it that Lacy's sister is able to do that he is willing to spend that much money on her?