Clinton spent heavily on charters before races

WASHINGTON — Before her 2006 Senate re-election campaign and 2008 presidential bid, then-senator Hillary Rodham Clinton dramatically increased her use of taxpayer-funded charter flights, becoming the Senate's biggest spender on reported charter airfare.

In the four years before the 2008 presidential campaign, she spent more than $300,000 on charters while the four other senators running for president — including then-senator Barack Obama — took a grand total of two taxpayer-funded charter flights.

Clinton spent $225,000 traveling on such charters during her eight-year tenure. That covers only her own airfare. The figure rose to $527,000 when the cost of the staff who flew with her is included. Clinton almost always flew with senior adviser Huma Abedin, and spokesman Philippe Reines was also a regular passenger, Senate spending records show.

Clinton's charter spending blossomed as her 2006 re-election loomed, rising from $85,000 in 2004 to $150,000 in 2006.

Before an anticipated run for president in 2016, Clinton's past expenditures and other practices, such as her use of a private e-mail account, have come under greater scrutiny by the media and potential opponents.

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Charter travel is legal, and it is not uncommon for members of Congress to travel more as they approach re-election, said Lawrence Noble, a campaign-finance expert at the Campaign Legal Center and former top lawyer for the Federal Election Commission. Lawmakers, he said, frequently "try to maximize the use of non-campaign funds for events" to save money from their campaign accounts.

Clinton's travel was part of "her tireless work on behalf of New York," spokesman Nick Merrill said, and "she constantly crisscrossed the state to meet with the people she represented."

"As anyone in the Senate representing a large state knows — and as reported down to the penny in public filings — that means going to hard-to-reach places, not just those conveniently located near major airports," Merrill said. "Sometimes that meant flying, sometimes that meant driving, sometimes it meant relying on a charter. She did whatever it took to get to where the people of New York actually lived and worked. Based on her resounding re-election, that's exactly what her constituents expected of her."

It wasn't all New York travel. USA TODAY found 28 of her office flights traveled outside New York at a total cost to taxpayers of $42,000, including trips to Atlanta to speak at a synagogue, Boston to speak about stem cell research, and Charleston, S.C., for the Renaissance Weekend, an annual New Year's Day conference.

Senators, especially those from New York, often use their office accounts to pay for charter flights. USA TODAY reported last year that senators spent $1 million on charter travel in 2013. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., topped the list at $286,000, while the state's other senator, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, was second with $93,000.

Schumer visits each of New York's 62 counties every year, but in 2006, Clinton spent $5,000 more than he did on charter flights. She spent more on charters than any other senator that year. (Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas spent more than $400,000 on travel that year, but Senate records do not indicate how much of that was spent on charters.)

Senators can pay for travel to official events from their office accounts, but they must spend from their campaign accounts for travel to or from political events or fundraisers.

That's legal as long as they clearly separate campaign from official events, Noble said.

By January 2005, Clinton was not only seeking re-election in 2006 but was also the leading Democratic candidate for president in 2008. She was the only senator eyeing a White House bid who was flying charter flights paid out of her office account.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and then-senators Obama and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., reported not a single taxpayer-funded charter flight from January 2005 to December 2008. Then-senator Joe Biden of Delaware, who dropped out of the race in January 2008, then became Obama's running mate, reported two charter flights during the four-year period, with a total cost of $8,400.

As an example of the different practices, in September 2005, Obama and Clinton joined former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush at an event in Houston to mark the opening of the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to provide assistance to hurricane refugees. Hillary Clinton spent $3,100 from her taxpayer-funded office account for charter airfare to the event for herself and Abedin. Obama reported using no taxpayer money for that event.

"We did not use charters for Senate travel," said Pete Rouse, who served as Obama's Senate chief of staff and followed him to the White House. "After March 2007, if Sen. Obama had to come back for a vote, he would do it commercially or via campaign plane," Rouse said.

McCain "generally drives everywhere he goes in Arizona," Communication Director Brian Rogers said. "While he has sometimes flown on military aircraft when visiting the state's military installations or the border, he generally does not take charter aircraft in-state."