Santorum charter flights cost taxpayers more than $400K

Former senator Rick Santorum, R-Pa., launched his presidential campaign in May by emphasizing his blue-collar roots and promising to "take money and power out of Washington."

But as a member of the U.S. Senate, Santorum spent more than $400,000 on taxpayer-funded charter flights, more than half of that for flights to and from the home he bought in the Northern Virginia hunt country in 2001, Senate spending records analyzed by USA TODAY show.

Senators are given a budget each year for staff, travel and other expenses and are allowed to allocate those expenses as they see fit. There is no prohibition on senators using charter flights, and USA TODAY has tracked the charter flights of other 2016 candidates, including then-senator Hillary Clinton, who spent more than $500,000 on charters during her eight years in the Senate.

Before Santorum bought the $640,000 house in Leesburg, Va., in November 2001, he had spent only $64,265 on charters in his prior six years in the Senate. In the following five years, he spent a total of $369,905 on charter flights, $248,055 of which included Leesburg on the itinerary.

By comparison, senator Arlen Specter, who served alongside Santorum from 1995 to 2007, had two charter service flights, one for transporting his staff, at the cost of $1,257 over the same time frame.

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Santorum's successor, Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., has taken a total of 48 trips on charters for a total of $45,095 since he assumed office in 2007. And Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., serving alongside Casey, has taken a total of nine charter trips for $18,097 since he took office in 2011.

"As Senator Casey travels Pennsylvania, he travels by car, train or commercial flight whenever possible," said John Rizzo, Casey's communications director.

E.R. Anderson, Toomey's communications director, said most weeks the senator takes the train from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station or Wilmington.

Santorum's charter costs are partly attributable to the fact that he visited all 67 counties of Pennsylvania each year that he was senator, said spokesman Matt Beynon. Much of the state is rural with no easily accessible commercial transportation options.

"For him to visit most major metro areas, Senator Santorum would have either needed to drive in excess of 4 or 5 hours or take private transportation. For instance, visiting Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — Pennsylvania's 3rd largest metro area — would have either required the senator to take several connecting flights or drive over 4 hours because there was not direct air service between any Washington, D.C.-area airport and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre," Beynon said.

But Santorum also took several costly charter flights from Washington to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, cities with ample commercial transportation options.

He took six trips from Washington to Philadelphia costing $13,906, and six trips from Washington to Pittsburgh, costing $24,515. When he took commercial transportation to those two cities, the cost to taxpayers was generally less than $500. Santorum also took 10 charter flights from Leesburg to Philadelphia and back at a cost of just over $26,000.

"There's a lot of commercial flights between the D.C. area and Philadelphia, and a lot of commercial flights between the D.C. area and Pittsburgh," said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, "I understand it may be for the senator's convenience but you have to question whether that's again using the taxpayers' money the most effectively," he said.

Beynon noted that the increase in Santorum's use of charter flights coincided with his election to GOP leadership. He served as Senate Republican Conference chairman from 2001 to 2007.

"With his election to the Senate leadership, there was an increased need to utilize approved charter transportation for the Senator to fulfill his obligations to the people of Pennsylvania and the Senate in Washington," said Beynon. He said that while most senators don't need to be in Washington until Monday evening or Tuesday morning and can leave Thursday night, as a member of leadership Santorum "needed to be in Washington each day of the week."

But the current Republican Conference chairman, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, has not significantly increased his use of charter flights since he assumed his leadership position in 2012.

Thune spent $50,670 on charter flights in 2011, $65,730 in 2012, $56,521 in 2013 and $70,203 in 2014, according to Senate expenditure records. South Dakota lawmakers are generally heavy users of charter flights because there are few commercial transportation options available in the state.

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